Doctor Who: Series 5
by JeffAndTheWorld
Summary: What would series 5 of Doctor Who be like if the Doctor had a third companion? We're going to find out, as I rewrite the life so far of the 11th Doctor, inserting myself into the story. Dedicated to Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen and Caroline John. RIP.
1. The End of Time

The End of Time: Part Two

"We will sing to you Doctor. The Universe will sing you to your sleep."

The Doctor rose his head painfully, taking strength from Ood Sigma's words. It replaced its translation ball, watching him eerily, ethereally. The Doctor grunted and staggered to his feet, a pained expression on his face. He took a couple of deep breaths and, grimacing through the pain, the Doctor stumbled towards his one home in the Universe.

"This song is ending. But the story never ends."

The Doctor reached the TARDIS, collapsing against them. Unlocking the door, he pushed them open and fell into the arms of the young man within.

"Doctor! Everything sorted?" The man kicked the doors closed and helped the Doctor steady himself.

"That's everyone," he replied, gasping, struggling to speak. He walked past the man and up the ramp, taking his coat off and throwing it over a pillar. The Doctor's hand began to glow, a strangely beautiful glow. He stared at it, taking it in. The man behind him stared, his eyes widened.

"Doctor..?" he began.

"You know what's happening, Alex," the Doctor said. It wasn't a question. The young man named Alex nodded. The Doctor walked around the TARDIS console, leaning on it for support, gazing in something akin to longing. He set it into motion. The TARDIS dematerialised. A golden substance began to stream from the Doctor's face and hands. He stared helplessly at Alex.

"See you on the other side," Alex whispered, compassionately, swallowing.

"I don't wanna go," the Doctor replied, teary-eyed. Alex nodded. The golden substance began to speed, to increase in volume. It flowed from the Doctor's sleeves and collar elegantly. It obscured the Doctor's distressed face. Alex waved to him sadly. The Doctor took one last breath. The golden energy exploded without warning. The console exploded with it, sparks and flames jumping and flying from it. The room shook uncontrollably, as the regenerative energy flew in all directions. Shards of glass and sparks cascaded from the ceiling. Alex cried out as one of the coral pillars was blown apart and collapsed across the room.

The Doctor stood among the destruction, not seeming to notice it, somehow avoiding the debris without moving. The golden energy covered him in a mystical veil. In the blink of an eye, the face of the mystical man changed. Without warning, the man's hair was longer, darker, thicker. A bigger nose. A younger face, the mouth upon which opened, unleashing a shout of pain and surprise. Without warning, the regenerative energy dispersed as suddenly as it had exploded. The new man, the same man stood there for a moment, un-stable on his feet. The Doctor looked down and saw something of interest.

"Legs!" he called out, grasping one and kissing it. "I've still got legs, good! Arms! Hands, ooh, fingers, lots of fingers." Said fingers flew to the Doctor's head. "Ears two, eyes yes, no-o-se, I've, had worse. Chin. Blimey..! Hair!" His hands descended to the end of his long hair. His voice rose in horror. "I'm a girl! No. No.. I'm not a girl," The Doctor berated himself for his own stupidity. He grasped a clump of his fringe "and still not ginger!" The Doctor looked around for his friend. "Alex, where are you? There's someone wrong, something I'm missing, where are you? We're what? We're, we're, we-e-e're?" _Crash_. The TARDIS took another tumble, throwing the Doctor to the floor. "Crashing!" he cried, jumping up and leaping towards the console. He flicked levers and twisted dials, still being thrown all over the place. "Geronimo!" he cried, as the TARDIS spiralled out of control towards the Earth below, flames flying from the smashed exterior.


	2. The Eleventh Hour: One

The Eleventh Hour – Part One 

_Splash_

The cruel, cold water Alex found himself in was enough to bring him back to the waking world. He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a pool of water. A groan sounded to the side of him.

"Worst, crash, ever," the Doctor muttered, getting to his feet. Alex looked him up and down. His hair had darkened and grown, along with his chin. He was slimmer, so his shirt was suddenly too large for him and his clothes were covered in rips and tears. And they were soaking wet.

"Doctor?" Alex murmured, getting to his feet. "Where are we?"

"Where do you think?" he replied, taking his shoe off and turning it upside down. A cascade of water poured neatly onto the neatly-stacked books they were standing on. Books?

"We're standing on books," Alex pointed out.

"So where are we? The library. Or rather, the wall of the library. Well, swimming-library. So yes, we _are_ standing on books. Rather wet books, but books nevertheless. Blimey, I'm starving."

"Why are we on the wall of the library?"

"Well, we crash landed didn't we? And spaceships rarely crash-land the right way up. Someone should design one though, they'd make a _fortune_. I'm rambling.

Before long, the Doctor had improvised a convoluted climbing rope, attached to a makeshift grappling hook. The Doctor fired it in the general direction of the Console Room, and led the climb through a few rooms and a couple of corridors until eventually they had climbed into the Console Room. The Room had rarely looked worse than it did then. The main Console had next to no light being emitted. The dust had not yet settled and so there was a general atmosphere of dirt and dankness. The Doctor had reached the end of the rope.

"Right," the Doctor announced, un-hooking the grappling hook from the console. "Best hold onto something." The Doctor clicked his fingers and the TARDIS doors burst open, releasing a surge of gas and dust into the outside world. He fired the grappling hook again, yanked it to make sure it was secure and clambered up the rope to the open door. He stuck his head out of it and saw a small child, staring at him in wonder.

"Can I have an apple?" the Doctor asked her. "All I can think about – apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving! That's new, never had cravings before."

"Doctor!" Alex cried from below, starting to lose feeling in his arms.

"Sorry," he called back. He heaved himself onto the TARDIS door frame, allowed Alex to clamber up to join him. As he did so, the Doctor glanced for the first time into the TARDIS-esque abyss.

"Whoa!" he cried out, glancing at the girl and grinning maniacally. Alex joined him on the doorframe. "Look at that!" he told him, pointing through the door at the devastation within the TARDIS. The little girl finally spoke up.

"Are you two okay?"

The Doctor swung his legs over the frame and rolled up his soaked sleeves. "Just had a fall," her told her. "All that way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"_All_ the way," Alex emphasized, jumping down from the doorframe.

"You're soaking wet," the little girl pointed out.

"We were in the swimming pool,"

"You said you were in the library?"

"So was the swimming pool," the Doctor shrugged.

The girl looked at them strangely. "Are you policemen?"

"Why?" The Doctor leaned towards her questioningly. "Did you call a policeman?"

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" The girl sounded hopeful.

"What cra-" Without warning, a great pain shot through the Doctor's body. He was thrown from the TARDIS and hit the ground in pain, doubled-over. Alex had to jump backwards to avoid being landed on, but the girl barely moved.

"You alright mister?" she enquired slowly. Alex bent down the help him.

"I'm fine," the Doctor winced, clearly not fine. "This is all perfectly norm-" A stream of regenerative energy gushed from his mouth, interrupting his words and forcing Alex to move back again. The child was uneasy. Not scared, but uneasy.

"Who are you?" she asked Alex.

"I'm, erm, Alex, and this is..." he gestured to the Doctor, waiting for him to continue. The girl looked at him expectantly.

"I don't know yet," the Doctor continued. He sat up, all pain apparently gone. Some more golden energy flowed from his hands. "I'm still cooking," he continued. "Does it scare you?" The girl adopted an incredulous expression.

"No," she told him, as if he were stupid. "It just looks a bit weird."

"No, no, no, no, the crack in your wall, does it scare you?"

"Yes," she said simply, as if stating the obvious. The Doctor grinned joyfully.

"Well then," he said, jumping up. The girl regarded him with a look of confusion. "No time to lose! I'm the Doctor! Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." Without another word, the Doctor gestured to Alex to join him and walked towards the house. _Crack_. The Doctor fell to the floor, having walked directly into a tree. The girl shone her torch into the Doctor's face.

"You alright?"

"Early days," he said, disregarding the mistake. "Steering's a bit off." He rolled onto his front and got to his feet. The girl took another look at him, glanced at Alex and led them towards her house. It was a large house; two stories along with an attic, large windows covering the front of it. It looked old. The girl pushed open the front door, leading the pair inside. They followed her down the passage to the kitchen. She ran into it and straight to a fruit bowl, from which she grabbed an apple and walked back to the Doctor and Alex, who were gazing around the room.

"If you're a Doctor, why does your box say police?"

The Doctor disregarded the question as stupid and grabbed the apple in the girl's hand. He took a slight sniff and sunk his teeth into the juicy skin. Ew. He spat the disgusting excuse for fruit onto the floor and bent over, coughing.

"Doctor, that's disgusting," Alex voiced, having been pelted with half-chewed apple.

"_That's_ disgusting, what is that?" the Doctor demanded of the girl, ignoring Alex entirely.

"An apple."

"Apples're rubbish, I hate apples."

"You said you loved them."

No, nope, nope, I love yoghurt! Yoghurt's my favourite, get me yoghurt."

The girl sighed and ran to the fridge.

"You want anything?" the Doctor asked Alex casually, who was picking a shard of apple from his shoe.

"Not in the slightest," he replied, a tone of slight disgust in his voice. The girl had seized a fairly large yoghurt from the fridge and jogged back to the Doctor. He took it from her, ripped off the lid and downed it as if it were a drink. With bits in. Alex saw it coming and took a step back, just in time. The Doctor spat the repulsive mixture onto the flood with the apple, much to the girl and Alex's displeasure.

"I hate yoghurt, it's just stuff with bits in!" he announced.

"You said it was your favourite!"

"New mouth," he told them matter-of-factly, wiping his mouth with his arm. "New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro-" Pain shot through the Doctor's body again. He shouted out and slapped his forehead. The pain subsided. The girl looked nervous again, as Alex sat at the kitchen table, adopting his own pained expression.

"What is it? W-what's wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me? It's not my fault, why can't you get me any decent food? You're Scottish, fry something." So the girl of just seven years old set the hob going and began rooting through the freezer for food.

"Couldn't get me a towel could you?" Alex spoke up, pointing to his sopping hair.

"I could do with one too, actually," the Doctor continued.

"Go in the cupboard-under-the-stairs, there should be a big stack of them." The girl didn't look up from the freezer. Alex looked at the Doctor who looked back at him. They held their gaze. Eventually, the Doctor made a face and ventured into the hallway, leaving a grinning Alex behind. The Doctor reached the cupboard when he sensed something. He looked up the stairs and began to climb. Alex stuck his head around the door.

"_Under_-the-stairs?" He opened the cupboard, drew out a towel and threw it at the Doctor, who caught it and, taking one more look up the stairs, followed him back into the kitchen and towards the hob. The Doctor rubbed his hair vigourously with the towel as the girl prepared the food in the pan.

"Ahh! Bacon!"

The girl served the bacon onto the plate and placed it on the table with a knife and fork. The Doctor took a seat and threw the towel at Alex so he could dry his hair too. The Doctor carved-up the bacon, pronged a piece and shoved it into his mouth. He smiled at the pair of them, and then spat it out with repulsion. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Bacon. That's bacon?" The Doctor gazed at the girl in sudden, slight shock. "Are you trying to poison me?"

Alex got up and crossed the kitchen to a cupboard which he opened. He scanned the contents and withdrew a can.

"This?" he pointedly asked the Doctor, showing him the can. The Doctor grinned and caught the tin Alex threw at him. The girl set the hob going again, and poured the contents into a pan.

"Ah, you see!" the Doctor told the girl as she prepared it. "Beans."

Alex grabbed the bacon-plate and poured the remnants into the bin, before rinsing it under the tap. He passed it to the girl, who served-up some of the beans onto the plate and placed it on the table in front of the Doctor. He scraped up a forkful and shoved it onto his mouth. Alex gave him a questioning thumbs-up. The Doctor looked nauseous, seemingly unable to swallow the concoction. He jumped up and hocked the mouthful of beans into the previously spotless sink.

"Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans," he told the two, who exchanged looks. He yanked open the cupboard above the sink and pulled out a loaf of bread, smiling at it. The girl walked over to him, took the bread and took some butter out of the fridge. She clumsily spread the spread over the bread. "Bread and butter? Now you're talking," he nodded, sitting back at the head of the table. The girl frowned and pushed it towards the Doctor who picked up a slice and popped it into his mouth.

"Mmm," he murmured appreciatively. All three of them grinned. Then the Doctor's face soured. "That is one hell of a pungent aftertaste." He picked up the plate and stormed from the room. Alex and the girl heard the front door open.

"And stay out!" came the Doctor's muffled cry. The door slammed shut and moments later, he returned to the kitchen, plateless. "What else you got?" He started to pace the floor, getting really rather hungry. The girl sighed and crossed to the fridge, which she opened.

"We've got some carrots?" the girl asked him.

"Carrots? Are you insane?" The Doctor looked at Alex expecting a similarly disgusted look. Alex returned it with a "You're-the-one-that's-insane" look. The Doctor seemed to take inspiration from this.

"No, wait, hang on, I know what I need." He joined her at the fridge and began to scan it. He opened the freezer too. "I need, I need, I ne-e-e-d, fish fingers and custard!" He pulled two boxes from within. He pushed the freezer shut with a grin. He chucked the fish fingers into a pan and poured the custard into a bowl, which he placed in the microwave. Alex stood up.

"I'm going to need to use the bathroom," he announced, eyeing the mixture the Doctor was busy preparing.

"Upstairs, first on the right," the girl told him. Alex thanked her and left the room. He side-stepped up the staircase and arrived at the top. All six doors were open. Such a large house, and only one bedroom on this floor. Some were completely empty. Why the large house? Alex strolled across the hall, entered the bathroom and did his business. He heard a clatter downstairs as the Doctor finished his fish custard, so finished up. He unlocked the door and left the room. He stopped, fast. A hissing sound. Slowly, he turned to his right. Nothing. He span around, but couldn't see anything. He looked through all five doors on the floor. Nothing. He returned to the spot where he'd heard the noise and stared at... what?

"You alright?" The Doctor was suddenly at his side, with the girl beside him.

"I thought I saw something..."

"What sort of something?"

"I don't..." he took a breath. "Never mind. What're we doing now?"

"Fixing a crack in the wall!" the Doctor cried, running the girl to her bedroom. "Alex, this is Amelia Pond, Amelia, Alex." He arrived at the bedroom and stood still, just looking at the wall. He approached it with apprehension and analysed it.

"You've had some cowboys in 'ere. Not actual cowboys," he assured Amelia. "Though that can happen."

"I used to hate apples. So my mum put faces on them." Amelia approached the Doctor, holding out an apple with a smiling mouth and two eyes carved into it. The Doctor smiled at it.

"She sounds good your mum. We'll keep it for later," he told her, throwing it to Alex, who smiled at her and put it in his pocket. The Doctor turned his attention back to the wall and knocked on it.

"This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it?" The Doctor looked at Alex, who had a quick feel of the crack and wall. He nodded at him in agreement. "So here's a thing, where's the draft coming from?" He rapped on the wall again. Alex took the Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket and threw it to the Doctor.

"You dropped it in the pool," he explained. The Doctor thanked him, scanned the crack and checked his readings.

"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?" he asked Alex and Amelia. Neither replied. "It's a crack!" he continued enigmatically. He went back to the wall. "And I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put because the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it then?" Alex asked, folding his arms. Amelia looked at the Doctor questioningly.

"Everywhere. In everything, it's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched. Pressed together. Right here in the wall of your bedroom." The Doctor pressed his ear to the wall. "Sometimes, can you hear..?"

"A voice. Yes."

"_Pri...r Z..o ..s e.c...ed_," came an echoey voice from the ether. The Doctor winced and drew back. Alex grabbed a glass of water from Amelia's bedside table and downed the water from within. He placed it against the wall and he and the Doctor bent down to share the glass.

"_Prisoner Zero has escaped_," said the voice.

"Prisoner? Prisoner what?" Alex asked the Doctor.

"Zero? Prisoner Zero?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard. What does it mean?" Amelia obviously had better hearing than the pair of them.

"_Prisoner Zero has escaped," _the voice said again. The Doctor and Alex withdrew from the wall.

"It means, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison. And they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?" Alex shrugged. Amelia shook her head.

"Need a better wall!" The Doctor picked up Amelia's desk and pulled it away from the crack. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut."

"Or?" Alex interjected. Amelia looked from one man to the other. Alex stared at the Doctor, waiting for it. The Doctor turned his gaze to Amelia.

"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's gonna be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes..."

"Everything's gonna be fine!" the Doctor assured her. He smiled and held out a hand, which she took. He clapped Alex on the shoulder. Amelia held out her other hand for Alex to take. The three took one last look at each other. The Doctor raised the Screwdriver, pointed it at the wall, and pressed the button. The crack rumbled. Streaks of light emerged from the crack and encapsulated the room. The wall began to shake, and seemed to grow and shrink at the same time. The Doctor, Amelia and Alex squinted through the light when, suddenly, the light dispersed. An otherworldly hole in the wall sat in front of them, through which seemed to be nothing. All-engulfing pitch black.

"_Prisoner Zero has escaped_," the voice repeated again. The Doctor slowly approached the chasm.

"Hello?" he called into the hole. "Hello-o-o!" Without warning, a large, disembodied eyeball appeared in the crack.

"Jesus!" Alex blurted out, jumping back in surprise. In contrast, the Doctor didn't move and held the eye's gaze.

"What's that?" Amelia whispered. No-one replied. The staring competition between the Doctor and the eyeball continued until, finally, the crack began to close. An orb of light seemed to travel from the eye to the Doctor who was thrown back. The crack closed, but Amelia, having dropped both the Doctor's and Alex's hands continued to stare at where it had been.

"There, you see! Told you it'd close! Good as new." The Doctor was lying on Amelia's bed, having been thrown onto it.

"What was that thing?" Amelia asked, still looking at the wall.

"Was that Prisoner Zero?" Alex glanced at the Doctor.

"No... I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, sent me a message," the Doctor told them, taking a black leather wallet from his pocket. "Psychic Paper. Takes a lovely little message. "Prisoner Zero has escaped"," he read.

"Why would it need to tell us that? We just heard it about five times" Alex asked him.

"I don't know..." the Doctor took a look around the room, wary. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Amelia asked.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here."

"Surely we'd have seen it? We were watching the crack the whole time!" Alex told him.

"Yeah... we'd know..." the Doctor ran out of Amelia's room onto the landing, looking around. "It's difficult," he told the pair. "Brand new me, nothing works yet but, there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye..." His eyes were drawn to the other end of the passage. Alex followed his gaze.

"Doctor! Just before you came upstairs, I heard something from over there."

"What sort of something?"

"I don't know, a sort of... hissing."

The Doctor gazed at him, and began to walk slowly in the direction.

_Boom._

The Doctor, Alex and Amelia turned away from the door to look out of the window.

"Isn't that the..." Alex began, slowly.

_Boom._

"No, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried, sprinting down the staircase. Alex and Amelia exchanged glances again and followed. The Doctor yanked the front door open again and ran outside, Alex and Amelia close behind.

"We've gotta get back in there! The engines are phasing! It's gonna burn!"

"But," Amelia began as she arrived at the TARDIS, out of breath. "It's just a box, how can a box have engines?"

"It's not a box," Alex assured her, grinning. He jumped up onto the TARDIS doorframe and swung his legs inside, as the Doctor unhooked the grappling hook and threw it back inside.

"It's a time machine!" he announced.

"What? A real one? You've got a real time machine?" she asked them, incredulously.

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised! Five-minute hop into the future _should_ do it!"

An idea entered Amelia's head. "Can I come?" she asked hopefully.

"Not safe in here, not yet."

"You're letting me come," Alex pointed out.

"Ohh, get in! And try to land on the console when you fall," said the Doctor. He pushed Alex's back as he ran past, causing him to slide into the TARDIS, down the metal ramp and to crash into the console with a bang. He groaned.

"Geronimo-o-o-o!" The Doctor yelled out, as he plummeted past Alex. He grabbed onto the Console and pulled a lever. The TARDIS doors slammed shut, causing the Doctor to lose his grip and plunge all the way back to the swimming-library.


	3. The Eleventh Hour: Two

_Yo guys. As you might have read/noticed, I'll be writing out the life of the Eleventh Doctor from the perspective of a new companion, Alex. To those episodes where it'll be hard to write in an extra character (Victory of the Daleks, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, The Lodger, A Christmas Carol), I'll come up with an incredibly clever reason why Alex has to temporarily leave the TARDIS team! Then I'll either skip those episodes completely, or possibly just novelise the episodes. Not sure yet. _

_I'll also be writing the two special-to-DVD scenes "Meanwhile in the TARDIS", along with one or two of my own writing. Each episode will be split into three "fifteen-minute" parts (four for The Eleventh Hour), with some one-off Meanwhile in the TARDISes scattered throughout. _

_Hope you enjoy it! Now, on with the show!_

The Eleventh Hour – Part Two

The TARDIS, having been set into motion by the Doctor before his fall, travelled through the Vortex, now in an up-right position. It didn't sound healthy. It was spluttering like an old banger, and it was hard to see for smoke and dust.

"Are you really going to take Amelia with you?" Alex asked, stopping mid-sentence to choke.

"Maybe. A little trip somewhere. But like I said, it's not safe. You're never totally safe when you're me," the Doctor coughed back.

"True. You just seem to miss the innocent, harmless stuff."

The Doctor stared at Alex through the dust, as if he'd never seen him before. "What did you say?" he shot at him.

"Sorry?"

"Say again what you just said, say it now."

"Erm. Innocent, harmless stuff?"

"No. _Missing_ things... Ohh!" the Doctor slapped his forehead in frustration. "You went upstairs didn't you? In her house?"

"Yeah. So did you?"

"But you went up before me. That hissing sound you heard, where did it come from?" the Doctor sounded frantic now.

"I don't know, outside the bathroom? Is it important?"

"It's the most important thing in our lives right now. Left or right?"

"_What_?"

"Left or right of the bathroom, where did it come from?"

"Left, I suppose... are you going to tell me what's going on?"

The TARDIS landed with a bang, but stayed upright. The Doctor ran down the ramp and threw the doors open. A vast amount of gas gushed from the TARDIS, as both men piled out and took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Right, you stay out here," the Doctor told Alex. "If I'm not back in ten minutes... still stay out here." With that, he sprinted towards the house, taking the Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket and unlocking the front door. "Amelia!" he cried out as he went. "Amelia! I've worked out what it was! I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" He barged inside and sprinted up the stairs. "Amelia? Are you alright? Are you there?" He arrived at the top of the flight of stairs and headed straight to the door to the left of the bathroom, as Alex had said. He tried the Sonic on the door, to no avail. He checked the readings. "Prisoner Zero's here," he muttered in horror. He repeated himself, louder this time. "Prisoner Zero is _here_, do you understand me?"

_Creak_.

Quick as a flash, the Doctor spun on the spot.

_Crack_.

The Doctor fell like a sack of potatoes.

Meanwhile, outside, Alex was sitting idly on the ancient swing, swinging backwards and forwards slightly. He looked rather bored. He checked his watch.

"Fifty eight... fifty nine... seven minutes. Close enough. Rounded up that's ten. Sort of." Alex got up and walked towards the house, still smelling slightly of TARDIS smoke. He pushed the front door open.

"Doctor?" he called out.

"Upstairs," came a muffled reply. Alex jogged up the stairs to find an odd sight. He took it in; Doctor on floor; Doctor handcuffed to radiator; attractive policewoman; attractive policewoman bearing down on the Doctor; attractive policewoman no longer bearing down on the Doctor; attractive policewoman glaring at him instead.

" Blimey," was Alex's only response.

"An accomplice!" the policewoman rounded back to the Doctor, slightly afraid-looking.

"Who's this?" Alex asked the Doctor, nodding his head to the policewoman.

"No idea. She knocked me out with a cricket bat."

"Where's Amelia?"

"Yeah, where is she?" the Doctor directed the question at the policewoman. She looked nervous.

"Amelia Pond?"

"Yeah. Amelia. Little Scottish girl, where is she? I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing, I suppose I must've gone a bit far." The Doctor took in the policewoman's increasingly nervous facial expression. "Has something happened to her?" No-one spoke for a moment of two.

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," the policewoman finally broke the silence. The Doctor leaned forward, while Alex stared at the policewoman in disbelief.

"How long?" they asked in unison. Another pause.

Finally: "Six months."

Alex groaned. "You _never_ cease to amaze me. 900 years of time and space, and you _still_ can't control that thing properly."

"Oi. I can control that thing near-perfectly. Anyway, I can't be six months late. I told her five minutes. I promised."

The policewoman turned away from the Doctor and faced Alex. "You," she said, bluntly. "Go and stand next to him." She took out her radio as Alex did as she was told.

"What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?"

The policewoman ignored the Doctor's pleas. She spoke into the radio. "Sarge, it's me again, hurry-it-up. There're two of them. These guys know something about Amelia Pond..."

Alex stared past the policewoman. "Doctor..?" he muttered. The Doctor looked at him. "There's a new room."

"No there isn't."

"Yeah, look. Down there. There were five doors last time we were here, now there're six!"

"There's always been six doors," he told Alex bluntly. The policewoman turned back to them, cutting their conversation short. "I need to speak to whoever lives in this house, right now."

"_I_ live here."

"But you're the _police_!"

"_Yes_, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?"

"... How many rooms?" the Doctor asked, barely audible.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"How many rooms in this floor? Count them for me now."

"Why?" she asked

"Because it will change your life."

She stared at the pair for a moment. "Five!" she said, as if it were obvious. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six."

"Six?" the policewoman seemed scared now. Alex frowned, looking at her. He'd seen that expression somewhere before...

"Look." The Doctor continued, simply.

"Look where?" the policewoman was getting engrossed now.

"Exactly where you don't wanna look, where you never wanna look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you."

The policewoman looked genuinely afraid now. Shaking slightly, she turned on the spot, slowly. She looked. There was a door. An impossible door. "That's... that is not possible. How is that possible?"

"There's a perception filter all round the door, sensed it last time I was here. Should've _seen_ it."

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed," the woman was transfixed, gazing at the door.

"The filter stops you noticing,"

"How did I see it?" Alex butted in?

"Because you were looking for it," he looked up at him from the floor. "Something came here a while ago to hide, it's still hiding," he looked back to the woman. "And you _need_ to un-cuff me now!"

"I don't have the key, I lost it..." she whispered, approaching the door, still unable to take her eyes off of it.

"How can you have lost it? Stay away from that door!"

"You got the Screwdriver?" Alex asked. The Doctor checked his pockets, but they were empty.

"No. You haven't got it again have you?"

"Nope." As the short conversation had progressed, the woman was edging closer to the mysterious door.

"Stay away from that door!" the Doctor called to her.

The policewoman arrived at the door.

"Do not touch that door!"

She turned the door handle.

"Listen to me, do _not_ open that-"

She opened the door.

"Why does no-one ever listen to me?" he asked. "Do I just have a face that nobody listens to? Again?"

"I'd better go in after her. Could be anything in there..." Alex began to walk towards the door.

"I _just_ said stay away from it!" He checked his pockets again. "Where's my Screwdriver? Silver thing, blue at the end. Where'd it go?"

Alex entered the room. The Doctor's cries were oddly muffled, on the other side of the filter. Alex gazed around the room. The policewoman was in the centre of the dank room. It hadn't been touched in years, with dusty old windows on the wall, covered by torn old curtains. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling by a wire, shedding light on the eroded wallpaper covering the eroded walls. The flood was mouldy, and some old wooden crates stood in the corner of the room. In the middle, just in front of the policewoman, was an old table. Apart from that, the room seemed totally empty.

"There's nothing here," she called to the Doctor.

"Whatever's in there's stopped you seeing the whole room, what makes you think you could see it?" came the Doctor's muffled voice from the hall. "Now, both of you get out. Alex, get her out of there."

The policewoman caught Alex's eye. She pointed something out to him.

"Doctor," Alex called out. "The Sonic's here." He didn't sound happy.

"Must've rolled under the door..."

"Yeah," the woman agreed. "Must have. And then it must've jumped up onto the table."

The Doctor's eyed widened. He didn't move a muscle. "Get out of there." Nobody moved. The Doctor raised his voice. "Get out!"

The woman leaned forward to pick up the Screwdriver. It was stuck to the table, encased in a shell of goo. She picked it up, strands of the liquid stretching from the Screwdriver to the table. She passed it to Alex.

"We'd better leave..." he muttered.

"Do you feel it?" she asked. She glanced around the room warily. Alex did the same. They both shuddered.

"Yep," Alex muttered. "That's why we should leave..." Alex backed towards the door. The policewoman didn't move, turning from side to side.

"What is it, what're you doing?" the Doctor called.

"There's nothing here but..."

"Corner of your eye..."

"We need to leave," Alex chipped in.

"What is it?" the woman asked, scared.

"Don't try to see it, if it knows either of you have seen it, it _will_ kill you." The Doctor's words fell on deaf ears as the woman continued to look around the room. "Don't look at it,"

Alex's eyes suddenly widened. "Miss," he stumbled backwards slightly. He held out a hand to the policewoman. "Best leave _now_, eh?"

The woman spun round and came face-to-face with what Alex had spotted moments before. She stared into its eyes. Its horrific, yellow eyes. It was an unnaturally-large snake with moist-looking skin, but certainly not with water. It stared back at the woman and unleashed a horrendous shriek, unveiling its razor-edge teeth and a tongue similar to its skin. It lunged for an attack. The policewoman screamed, dodging out of the way and stumbled back towards Alex.

"Get OUT!" the Doctor shouted, still chained to the radiator. The snake lunged again. Alex was ready for it, pointing the Screwdriver at it and pressing the button. Nothing seemed to happen, but the monster was suddenly cautious, aware of the alien technology in the room. Alex nudged the woman, who edged out and ran back down the corridor to the Doctor. Alex followed her and slammed the door. He chucked the Screwdriver towards the Doctor, who caught it with expert precision and locked the door from afar. Alex jogged down the corridor to join the pair. The Doctor was now attempting to unlock his handcuffs, but the Screwdriver appeared to be failing. The Doctor groaned.

"What's the bad alien done to you?"

"Will that door hold it?" the policewoman asked, not daring to take her eyes from the door.

"Oh yeah, yeah, it's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer space. They're all _terrified_ of _wood_."

The woman glared at the Doctor. Alex chuckled, despite their circumstances, as the Doctor continued to try and fail achieve freedom. A beam of bright yellow light shone from around the doorframe at the far-end of the hallway.

"What is..." Alex began.

"What's it doing?"

"I dunno," the Doctor barely glanced at the door, now attempting to rub the goo off of the Screwdriver in an attempt to fix it. "Getting dressed? Run, just go, both of you, your back-up's coming. I'll be fine."

"There _is_ no _back-up_." The woman rolled her eyes. The Doctor raised his eyes to her. Alex looked from the door to her, both waiting for an explanation.

"I heard you on the radio; you called for back-up."

"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio." The woman was obviously trying to avoid something.

"But you're a policewoman!" the Doctor cried exasperatedly.

"Ohh, I'm a kissogram!" the woman grabbed her police-hat and threw it off, unveiling locks of red, sleek hair that couldn't have possibly fitted inside the hat. She gave the pair a look, who stared back at her like idiots. The door at the end of the passage was knocked off of its hinges and to the floor, bringing both the Doctor and Alex out of their reveries. All three of them turned back to the door, to be met with an unusual sight. A bald man in blue overalls strolled out, with a black, vicious-looking dog on a lead.

"'Scuse us mate," Alex called out. "Haven't seen a snake-monster from space 'round here, have you?" the dog growled.

"But it's just..." the woman started.

"No it isn't."

"Hologram?" Alex asked?

"Nah. Look at the faces," the Doctor instructed them. Alex looked and saw, to his surprise, that although he could hear growling, the dog's face was still. The man in overalls opened his mouth and let out a tirade of angry barks, flecks of spit flying from his mouth. Alex raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What? I'm sorry, _what_?" the woman looked at the Doctor in disbelief. The Doctor was smiling slightly, taking in the sight before him.

"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two – clever old multiform! Bit of a rushed job though." The man and dog's heads were perfectly synchronised. They took in their surroundings as one. The Doctor raised his voice so the 'man' could hear. "Got the voice a bit muddled did you?" The creature's heads turned to glare right into the Doctor. Un-phased, he went on. "Mind you, where'd you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How'd you fix that?"

The thing didn't reply, just continuing to growl. It slowly began to approach the group. Without warning, it released the same unearthly shriek as it had in its snake form. The same deadly teeth and same unnaturally-moist tongue occupied the man's mouth. The alien eyes also began to gleam through.

"Stay boy!" the Doctor tried.

"That's a point. Why a dog?" Alex asked, slightly conversationally. The alien's roars and growls subsided.

"Really not the time for that," the Doctor muttered to Alex. He addressed the alien again. "Us three, we're safe. You wanna know why? 'Cos she sent for back-up," he said triumphantly, patting the woman's shoes.

"I didn't send for back-up!"

The Doctor groaned. "I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives. Okay, yeah, _no_ back-up! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you, if we _had_ back-up, then you'd have to kill us."

"_Attention Prisoner Zero, the human residence is surrounded,"_ a familiar voice rumbled overhead. _"Attention Prisoner Zero, the human residence is surrounded."_ Prisoner Zero's heads looked up in perfect unison.

"Isn't that... the eyeball?" Alex whispered.

"Yes. That's back-up. Okay, one more time. We do have back-up and that's definitely why we're safe!"

"_Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."_ The eyeball sounded.

"Well safe apart from, you know, incineration."

"_Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."_

Prisoner Zero walked into the next room, apparently aimlessly. Alex spun on the spot and looked out of the large window, trying to spot any large, disembodied eyeballs that might be lurking outside. The Doctor banged the Screwdriver against the floor in desperation.

"Come on. Come on, work-work-work. Come on!" Finally, it burst into life, emitting its signature light and sound. The Doctor grinned and aimed it at the handcuffs. They sprung open. "Run!" he cried, grabbing the woman's hand and pushing her towards the stairs. The Doctor followed her, before turning around to see Alex still craning his neck at the window.

"Oi!" the Doctor called in annoyance. Alex turned around, evidently not having taken in what had just happened. He smiled and jogged down the corridor after the Doctor. They both raced down the stairs, jumping the last four. They piled out of the front door, which the Doctor then locked with the Screwdriver. Alex ran through the garden to the TARDIS.

"Kissogram?" he asked, as he did so.

"Yes, a kissogram! What's going on, tell me!"

"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?"

"You broke into my house; it was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell me!" The woman followed the Doctor, who jogged to join Alex at the TARDIS. He rounded on the Doctor, key in hand, which he brandished to the Doctor.

"The key won't turn! It's not letting me in!" Alex tried to force his key into the lock, but an invisible force stopped him. The Doctor groaned and tried to have a go.

"Tell me!" the woman cried out.

The Doctor sighed, annoyed. "An alien convict is hiding in your spare room, disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"

"Yes!"

"I have one!" Alex piped up, having given up on the TARDIS doors. "If you're a kissogram, how'd you know about Amelia?" he asked the woman.

The woman seemed to think for a moment. "It was on the news."

"What happened to her?"

"No, no! Don't do that, not now!" The Doctor's key wasn't working either.

"Why won't it let us in? Have _you_ broken it?" Alex turned his attention back to the TARDIS.

"You can't break a TARDIS! It's still rebuilding!"

"So it's not broken, but it's rebuilding?"

Prisoner Zero stood at an upstairs window, barking a ferocious bark that managed to be chilling, despite coming from a seemingly-ordinary man's mouth. The woman looked at him in fear, before turning back to the two grown-men fumbling over a phone box. She grabbed them both by the arm, alerting them to her presence.

"Come on!" she cried, pulling them out of the garden. Alex agreed and went with her. She loosened her grip on Alex's arm just in time to tighten her grip on the Doctor's who protested, pulling himself back into the garden.

"No! Hang on! Wait, wait-wait-wait, the shed!" the Doctor pulled himself free and ran over to the garden shed. "I destroyed that shed last time I was here! Smashed it to pieces!"

"Doctor, that was six months ago!" Alex reminded him. "We have to _go_!"

"There's a new one!"

"Yeah, but the new one's got old! It's ten years old at least!" the Doctor sniffed the shed, tasted in. "Twelve years. We're not six months late, we're twelve years late."

"Twelve years?"

"He's coming."

The Doctor disregarded Prisoner Zero, only having eyes for the woman. "You said six months! Why did you say six months?" he sounded genuinely affronted.

"We have to go!"

"This matters! This is important, why did you say six months?"

"Why did you say _five minutes_?" the woman shouted, angrily. She glared at the Doctor, having adopted what was apparently her natural Scottish accent.

"What..?" the Doctor whispered.

"Five minutes?" Alex asked, confused.

"Come on," she wheeled on Alex again, grabbing an arm each.

"What?" the Doctor raised his voice now.

"Come on!" she ran out of the garden, both the Doctor and Alex following her. She screeched as Prisoner Zero exited the house and stood at the threshold, barking at the trio. She led them out of the garden gate and up a hill past the village common. Only then did they stop running. The Doctor rounded on the woman.

"You're Amelia," he stated.

"She's _who_?" Alex, who had missed the five-minute conversation twelve years ago, widened his eyes in shock. He stared at her. She looked slightly apologetic before turning her back on the pair and storming up the hill.

"You're late."

"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl!"

"No!"

"I'm Amelia, and you're late."

A barking sounded from the bottom of the hill. The Doctor and Amelia, apparently not having heard it, continued up the hill, arguing. Alex turned around and saw the bald man with his dog stroll out of the garden. Both of its heads turned in unison and locked eyes with Alex.

"What's that? Why're you playing that?" the Doctor asked the confused ice-cream man.

"_Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated,"_ came the eyeball's garbled voice from the van's loudspeaker.

"It's supposed to be Clair-de-Lune," he replied defensively. The threat repeated itself. Amelia looked around, noticing they were one-short.

"Where's Alex?"

"Doing a job for me."

"What? When'd you tell him to do that?"

"I didn't."


	4. The Eleventh Hour: Three

The Eleventh Hour – Part Three

Prisoner Zero marched through the village of Leadworth, taking in his new surroundings. He'd been cramped into the same room for twelve years. He got a number of strange looks from passers-by, as the man and dog moved in perfect unison. He seemed to be circling the village. About twenty metres behind him, Alex crouched behind a small bush, not wanting to be seen. The Doctor wanted Alex to keep an eye on Prisoner Zero, he was sure of it. Can't let an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer space roam a quaint little English village freely. Although what Alex was actually supposed to do if he saw any trouble was beyond him.

"_Repeat!_ _Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated!"_ The words came from every speaker imaginable, from MP3 player headphones, from a mobile phone, from radios, from televisions that Alex spied through some house windows. Some tourists passed Alex on the path, looking just as confused as the residents of Leadworth.

"_Répetez!_ _Prisonnier__Zéro__quitter la__résidence__de l'homme__, __ou de la résidence__de l'homme__seront__incinérés ! "_

The French people glanced at each other. They evidently believed it was some odd English music. Alex however, thought more deeply.

"Why tell the French?" he whispered to himself? He disregarded it and turned back to Prisoner Zero. He'd disappeared. "Oh GOD," Alex leapt up and ran forward to where he'd last seen the alien. He twisted left and right but saw nothing.

"So very rude... and that dog! It should be in a kennel!" Alex heard the words and turned, watching the old lady leave the park, talking to her friend. With no other option, Alex decided to take a chance and ran into the park, keeping a constant eye out for the man and dog. He rounded a corner and nearly ran into him. He stopped dead in his tracks, waiting for Zero to turn round.

When it seemed he'd got away with it, Alex crept behind the fire engine to the side of the alien and onto the green. He took a seat at a bench, keeping the man, who stood stock-still, in his sights at all time. Periodically, he glanced over, but the thing hadn't moved a muscle, simply staring into the sky. Alex stretched and glanced around, waiting for the Doctor to make an appearance. Instead, he caught the eye of a man sat on another bench nearby. The other man looked away straight away, shooting an eye over Prisoner Zero instead, which he too was doing at regular intervals. The man had brown-blonde, short hair. He was fairly tall, but had a nervous look about him. He had a large nose to match his height, and was dressed in a nurse's uniform. Alex jumped up and joined the man at the other bench.

"Now, I know why _I_ keep looking at the bloke with the dog," he said, conversationally. "But why are you?"

"What?" the man replied defensively.

"Alex. Alex Morgan," Alex held out a hand, which the nurse shook, slightly confused.

"R-Rory Williams," he replied.

"Good to meet you Rory." Alex cast an eye over Rory's attire. "Doctor?"

"Nurse," he corrected. "Sort of, nurse. I have to take, erm... time-off."

"Why's that?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because I'm interested! Anyway, manners cost nothing."

"My supervisor. She said I'm... well, you know. Why am I even telling you this?"

"No idea. We're going to get on though, I can tell," Alex grinned at Rory, giving him a friendly punch on the arm. "Now, tell me Rory. Why do you keep looking at the guy with the dog?"

Rory turned towards Alex, looking at him properly for the first time. "Do I know you?"

"No. Pretty sure you don't."

"I've heard Alex Morgan somewhere before,"

"Fairly common name. Sort of," Alex glanced past Rory and finally noticed the Doctor jogging down the road and stopping short at a small pond, Amelia close behind. "Ah, there he is!"

Rory looked to where Alex's eyes were directed. "That's my girlfriend," he mentioned. "Who's the guy with her?" He sounded rather annoyed now.

"Oh, just a frien- oh!" in the distance, the Doctor seemed to collapse in pain. Amelia did little to help him, from what Alex could see. What Alex could see lessened further, as the light in the area dimmed. Dimmed light, outside? Alex twisted in his seat to look at the sun. "What are you doing?" Alex asked it, as it changed colour, looking like a sun painted with watercolours. "Any ideas Ror..." Alex turned around, as the sun re-lit itself, to see that Rory had disappeared from his side. Looking around, he spotted him a short distance away, with his phone out. Prisoner Zero was glaring at the ever-changing sun, a look of something that could be akin to fear etched upon his stolen face. Taking advantage of this lapse in concentration, Rory had jumped at the chance to take a picture of the man. Alex joined him.

"Okay, seriously, why're you taking a picture of him? What do you know?"

"Because-"

"Sorry, back in a mo'!" In the distance, Alex had noticed Amelia shove the Doctor against a car, grab his tie and trap it in a locked door. Alien-on-the-loose? The last thing you want to do then is incapacitate the Doctor. Alex strolled towards the Doctor and Amelia at a decent pace. Rory stared after him, deciding whether or not to follow. He decided not to, and went back to his phone, checking the photo he'd just taken.

As Alex approached the pair, he noticed that the pair seemed to be having a serious moment. He slowed down, not wanting to interrupt.

"...Twenty minutes," the Doctor was telling her. "Believe me for twenty minutes..." He looked up and noticed Alex. "Alex. Apple."

Alex took a moment to understand. He felt the slight bulge in his pocket. He reached into it and pulled out the apple with a face lovingly carved into it. The Doctor took it and passed it to Amelia.

"I'm the Doctor. We," he gestured to Alex. "We're Time travellers. Everything that happened twelve years ago, everything we told you, is true. What's happening in the sky is real. And if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."

Amelia stared into the eyes of the man. The man she had waited for all these years, the man she never truly gave up on. The Raggedy Doctor. _Her_ Raggedy Doctor. "I don't believe you,"

The Doctor sighed and looked to Alex for help. He approached the pair slowly. "Amelia,"

"Amy," the Doctor corrected. Alex looked at him questioningly, before being spurred on.

"Amy. Look at me. Look at both of us. We look exactly as we did _twelve_ years ago," he almost whispered his words, trying to get through Amy's tough skin to her soft heart within. "I know, I know it must've been hard. Five minutes, twelve years. I know. But all that time you've waited. We finally come back, and you don't believe in us anymore? Don't waste those twelve years...please. Believe..."

The Doctor took over. He nodded towards the apple, still held in Amy's hand, which he grasped. "Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to us. And you _know_ it's the same one." Amy looked from the apple to her companions and back again, soaking it all up. "Believe us... for twenty minutes..."

Slowly but surely, Amy rose her hand with the car keys. She pressed the unlock button. "What do we do?"

"Stop that nurse." The Doctor released himself from the car-door and sprinted over to where Rory was standing, Alex close behind him, with Amy bringing up the rear. Rory, still preoccupied with his phone didn't notice the Doctor jog up behind him. He had no time to protest as the Doctor grabbed his phone out of his hands and glanced at the photo on the screen.

"The sun's going out," the Doctor announced, giving Rory back his phone. "And you're photographing a man and a dog, why?"

Rory, completely startled, didn't reply. Alex and Amy joined them. "Back, Ror," Alex clapped him on the shoulder.

Rory glanced at Alex, still slightly uneasy. Amy arrived at his other side. "Amy!" he said, obviously very happy to see her. She grasped Rory's arm and grinned back.

"Hi!" she looked back to the Doctor. "Oh, this is Rory. He's a... friend."

"Boyfriend," Rory corrected.

"Kind of, boyfriend,"

"Amy!"

"Man and dog, why?" the Doctor interrupted, looking from Amy to Rory impatiently.

Rory looked the Doctor up and down, recognition in his eyes. They widened. He turned to drink in Alex's appearance too. "Oh, my God. It's them!"

"Just answer his question, please," Amy interjected.

"It's him though! The Doctor, the Raggedy Doctor! And Alex! Alex Morgan!"

"Yeah, they came back!"

"How... do you know us, then?" Alex leaned his head into the discussion.

"Amy drew cartoons of us," the Doctor told him, speaking fast.

"Cartoons..?"

"She made me help her," Rory mentioned.

The Doctor's patience ran out. He grabbed Rory by his jacket and pulled the man towards him roughly. "Man and dog why? Tell me. Now," the Doctor asked bluntly, emphasizing each new sentence by roughly shaking Rory. He seemed rather intimidated.

"Sorry!" he blurted out. "Because he can't be there because he's in a hospital," the Doctor and Rory spoke simultaneously. "In a coma," they finished. Rory nodded nervously, as if to agree with the Doctor. "Yeah,"

"Knew it... Multiform y'see," the Doctor patted down Rory's jacket, tidying it up. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living but dormant mind."

A ferocious barking alerted the four to a new arrival. They all twisted round to see Prisoner Zero standing in front of them, glaring at them.

"If looks could kill..." Alex muttered.

The Doctor stepped forward. "Prisoner Zero..."

"What?" Rory asked Amy incredulously. "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"

"Yes!"

Without warning, a great whirring of otherworldly engines sounded overheard. Looking up, Alex noticed the disembodied eyeball. But it was no longer disembodied. Sort of. Attached to what seemed to be a distorted mix between a metal spider's web and a snow-flake, the eye emitted something similar to a tractor beam, which travelled all over the surrounding area. The Doctor turned back to Prisoner Zero.

"See that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology," he told it, taking the Screwdriver out of his pocket. He went on. "And _nothing_ says non-terrestrial like a Sonic Screwdriver!" The Doctor, ecstatic, held the Screwdriver aloft, with a look of victory etched across his face. As it activated, chaos reigned in the vicinity. Street lights burst and exploded, car alarms sounded, windscreen-wipers and car horns spontaneously activated. Most noticeably, a large, red fire-engine went careering down the road driverless, chased frantically by a number of shouting firemen. Prisoner Zero looked around at the pandemonium, looking genuinely fearful. The Doctor, un-phased by the destruction he was causing, went on.

"I think someone's gonna notice, don't you?" Still smiling, he lowered the Screwdriver slightly. The telephone box to the Doctor's right exploded, sparks showering the area and certainly putting the phone within out of use. It was too much for the Sonic Screwdriver, which exploded in a similar manner. White-hot sparks rained down on the Doctor, who released the Screwdriver in pain, wincing as sparks landed on him. The fried Screwdriver fell to the ground. The Doctor dropped to the floor with in, picking it up in disgust, as if it were something truly revolting. The Doctor's trusty Screwdriver had failed him at last.

"No! No-o-o! Don't do that!" The Doctor threw the Screwdriver to the ground in anger and desperation. The strange, alien engines sounded overhead once again, as the ship soared away, apparently sure that nothing non-terrestrial was in the immediate area. Evidently, the commotion caused by the Doctor had gone un-noticed.

"Oh look, it's going!" The Doctor pointed out in frustration. "Come back!" he shouted in vain, as the ship flew off. "Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is here, come back! Prisoner Zero is here-e-e..." the Doctor petered off as the ship disappeared from view.

"Doctor!" Amy cried. The Doctor, Alex and Rory turned to look at her. Prisoner Zero had disappeared. Where had he gone? "The drain," she explained. "It just sort of melted and went down the drain."

"Well of course it did!"

"How? Alien or not, it still has a human body!" Alex noted.

"No it doesn't. You weren't far off when you said 'hologram' earlier. It's a disguise. You can put a sheet over your head, doesn't make you a ghost. Same principle here," the Doctor's face displayed a look of worry.

"Well what do we do now?" Amy didn't particularly direct the question towards anyone. The Doctor barely knew the answer, his hair looking as dishevelled as his face. Alex and Rory continued to gaze at the drain.

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open... No TARDIS, no Screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on... think. _Think_!"

Rory was still glaring at the drain. He approached it apprehensively, wishing to look down it.

"Rory, best not eh?" Alex called out.

"It's fine, it's long gone..." the Doctor assured them. He and Amy joined Rory and Alex at the drain. Rory straightened-up, having noticed no alien-snakes lying within.

"So that thing," Amy asked, also looking up from the drain. "_That_ hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for millennia, twelve years is a pit-stop."

"So how come that lot turn up on the very same day as you two do, the same minute?"

"They're looking for him but they followed me. They saw me through the crack... they're only late 'cos I am," the Doctor explained it away.

"What's he on about?" Rory finally spoke up.

The Doctor held his hand out towards him. "Nurse-boy, gimme your phone."

Rory couldn't drop it. He asked Amy "How can they be real, they were never real!"

"Phone, now! Gimme!"

Rory relinquished his phone, which the Doctor began to look through. "It was a game, we were kids. You made me dress up as him!" He pointed at Alex. "You too, sometimes."

Alex looked slightly taken aback. He turned to Amy, wanting an explanation. "What did _I_ do? He was the interesting one."

The Doctor interrupted. He was looking at Rory's photos with interest. He took each one in. "These photos, they're all the coma patients."

"Yep,"

"No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"He had a dog though, there's a dog in a coma?" Amy asked him.

"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog."

"Hold on, I asked that ages ago. You didn't answer me." Alex sounded slightly affronted.

"Yes, well, I _was_ chained to a radiator, while the house was about to be incinerated. Laptop!" the Doctor looked up from the phone, to Amy. "Your friend! What was his name? Not him," he pointed to Rory, "the good-looking one!"

"Thanks"

"Jeff," Amy nodded.

"Oh-h, thanks!"

"He had a laptop in his bag! Big bag, big laptop! I need Jeff's laptop! You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward, clear the whole floor! Phone me when you're done! Alex, with me!" At this, the Doctor, taking with him Rory's phone, left the group, dragging Alex with him. They jogged across the green in the direction the Doctor had come from.

"Doctor?" Alex called as they ran. He looked at him, acknowledging the question. "What's happening in twenty minutes? When Amy had you on the car, you told her to trust us for twenty minutes."

"The eyeball, the Atraxi, when they say they're going to incinerate the human residence, they weren't talking about Amy's house. They're talking about the planet. It'll take about twenty minutes to power up their weapons to incinerate the planet."

Alex stopped. He widened his eyes in horror. The Doctor was probably enjoying this. He probably considered twenty minutes to save the world as a fun challenge. True to form, the Doctor hadn't realised that Alex had stopped and had ran ahead to his destination. Alex rolled his eyes, took a breath and chased him. The Doctor vaulted a white, picket fence and trampled plants as he ran across the garden behind it. He barged through the door. Alex followed, taking the more conventional method of the garden path. An elderly woman appeared at the door. She noticed Alex.

"Oh, hello Alex, dear," she said to him. He looked at her questioningly.

"Amy said you'd come back," she answered his unspoken question. "Come in, come in!" she ushered.

Alex followed the woman into the house. She led the way down a passage and opened a door. Alex wandered inside too. Within, he found the Doctor, sitting on the end of a bed with a laptop on his lap. Another man, Jeff, Alex assumed, sat behind him, looking slightly mortified. Alex wondered why...

"Gran!" Jeff's facial expression deteriorated further at her arrival. He glanced at Alex. "Who's th- are you Alex Morgan?"

"Yeah. So this is what celebrity is like..." Alex muttered. The Doctor raised his head and looked at him in confusion. "Strangers know your name," he explained.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked the Doctor as he returned to the computer.

"The sun's gone wibbly. So right now, somewhere out there, there's gonna be a big ol' video conference-call. All the experts in the world, panicking at once. And d'you know what they need? Me." The laptop beeped, having completed its mission. The Doctor grinned and scanned the computer screen. "Ah and here they all are! All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore!" The Doctor smiled cheekily at this last one.

"Oh, I like Patrick Moore!" the woman chuckled, nodding.

"I'll get you his number. But watch him. He's a devil."

"'Ey, you can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff told the Doctor, frowning.

"Can't I?" The Doctor extracted the Psychic Paper from his pocket and flashed across the screen, which was now divided into six different camera feeds. Occupying each was a different expert, all of whom expressed their confusion, outrage and annoyance at the stranger's presence.

"Who are you?"

"This is a secure call, what're you doing here?"

"Hello. Yeah, I know, you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this!" the Doctor spoke to the screen. He began to type on the keyboard, speaking to himself rather than the scientists on screen. His work showed on screen as images of nuclei, electrons and protons began to circulate. "Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one! Never been seen before, poor old Fermat got killed in a duel before he could write it down!" He looked up from his work. "My fault. I slept in."

Jeff and his Gran glanced at Alex in confusion. He sighed and shrugged, smiling as if to say "He's always like that."

The Doctor went on. "Oh! And here's an oldie but a goodie, why electrons have mass! And a personal favourite of mine: Faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke!" The experts on the screen had been silenced. "Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas. Pay attention."

The experts were still silenced, as were Jeff and his Gran. Finally, she spoke up. "Fancy a tea, dear?"

Alex glanced at her and realised she was talking to him. "Oh, er, I'd better, y'know, stay with the Doc-" he stuttered.

"Come on," she interrupted, taking him arm. "Leave them to it and help me with the tea." She pulled him out of the room, leaving Alex looking pleadingly at the Doctor as he left who, noticing, was already getting to work. Alex sighed and followed her to the kitchen.

"Can you get the milk from the fridge for me dear? Check it's okay to drink," she told him, as she tottered into the kitchen.

"Fifteen minutes 'til the end of the world and I'm checking the use-by-date of some milk..." he muttered. He grabbed the bottle, plastered a smile back onto his face and straightened up. "Absolutely fine!"

"Oh good!" she took it from him and began to prepare the drink.

"So... you've known Amy how long?" Alex asked conversationally, leaning against the counter.

"All of her life! Yes, I've lived in Leadworth twenty-six years. The Ponds moved in about thirteen years ago, when Amelia was six, or so!"

"Right... you said the Ponds... D'you know what happened to her parents?"

"Her what?"

"Parents."

She seemed to think for a moment or two, troubled. Eventually, she replied "Do you know dear, I'm not sure..."

"Right... you knew them though?"

Again, she didn't answer straight away. "I think so. I must have done, yes. Can't... actually remember anything about them though..." she seemed to be deep in thought, staring into space. Suddenly, she shook herself out of it, perking up. "That's what age does to you, I suppose! Do you take sugar?"

"Two, please. So you don't remember them at all?"

She busied herself with spooning sugar. "Remember who?"

Alex changed tact. "So what was Amy like? As a child?"

"She was always a bit odd. But then she met that Raggedy Doctor of yours. Sent to psychiatrist after psychiatrist. Never had any close friends, not really. She'd get along with Jeff, but I don't think she'd have ever chosen to spend time with him... No, the only true friend she had was little Rory Williams. They'd never be apart. Always running around the village green, pretending to be fighting aliens and monsters..." the woman seemed nostalgic. Alex, smiling at the thought, didn't press her on. Eventually, she did. "Bit of a tearaway as a teenager. Leaving the house after dark, usually to meet Rory. Everyone knew he was infatuated with her. She's an attractive girl, after all. Anyway, her aunt banned her from seeing him at one point, until she realised Amy was lost without him." She finished the drink she was preparing and handed it to Alex. "Take that to Jeff, will you dear?"

"Alex, still smiling at the thought of little Amy and Rory playing together, wandered from the kitchen towards Jeff's room. As he neared it, the Doctor burst from the room, phone in hand. He saw him.

"Job done, let's go!" he grabbed the mug from Alex, drank a bit and put it on the sideboard.

"Where now?" Alex asked him.

"Hospital!" the Doctor yanked the front door open and stopped. "One sec," he ran back to Jeff's door and opened it. He stuck his head around it. "Oh and, delete your internet history," the Doctor told him. Slamming the door shut again, he jogged to the front door, out of it and down the garden path, followed closely by Alex. The Doctor stopped and glanced to his right. He grinned. "Oh _yes_..." he muttered, running in the direction of the large fire engine he had broken earlier. It had been left unattended. The Doctor hopped up into the driving seat, beckoning for Alex to join him.

"Is this legal?" Alex asked, as he clambered inside.

The Doctor started up the engine and grinned at the firemen on the lawn jumped up at started running towards the vehicle, arms waving. "'Course not!"

With this, the Doctor reversed the fire engine onto the road and careered out of the sleepy village and onto the motorway, leaving the distraught firemen far behind.


	5. The Eleventh Hour: Four

_This is taking longer than I thought. There'll be one more part of The Eleventh Hour after this :)_

The Eleventh Hour – Part Four

The fire-engine sped down the motorway, the Doctor at the wheel. Evidently, he had never passed a driving test. There only being one seat meant Alex had to hold on for dear life as the Doctor rocketed down the road above the speed limit.

"Can you slow down?" Alex cried, picking himself up from the floor for the fifth time, rubbing his knee.

"Seven minutes to go Alex, seven minutes!" the needle on the speedometer rose a couple more notches. Despite the desperation in his voice, the Doctor was clearly enjoying himself. He turned his head to Alex and grinned, confirming his beliefs.

"Doctor, watch the road!" Alex yelled, as the Doctor had to swerve to avoid a yellow VW Beetle. For the sixth time, Alex found himself on the floor. Grunting, he pulled himself to his feet. Rory's phone began to ring. The Doctor reached into his pocket to answer it, losing control of the fire engine as he did so. As it shook from one side of the motorway to the other and cut-up drivers, car horns sounded from all around.

"No, no, no! You are not driving and speaking on that!" Alex told the Doctor, holding out his hand. "Give me the phone!"

The Doctor was insulted. "No! I can multi-task. Besides, you don't know the whole plan."

"Tell me it then,"

"No. I don't know it yet either."

"Then give me the wheel!"

"Fine. I'm going to let it coast. Be ready to get it going again,"

The Doctor took the fire engine out of gear. He jumped out of the driver's seat and Alex dived into it. He put it back into gear and picked up speed, cars beeping their horns behind again. The Doctor answered the phone, listening to what Amy had to say. He sighed.

"Look in the mirror," he told her.

"So, where's the hospital?" Alex asked the Doctor.

"_I_ don't know, look on there!" he pointed at the Sat-Nav. Alex rolled his eyes and typed "hospital" into it. The nearest was the Royal Leadworth Hospital. Sounded about right.

"Just left," the Doctor said into the phone. He paused, and then continued. "Don't worry! We've commandeered a vehicle!" the Doctor hit a large red button and set the fire engine's sirens going. Cars in front of them parted, allowing the Doctor and Alex safe and fast passage through. Alex glanced at his watch. Six minutes...

"Take the third exit on the left. Estimated Time of Arrival: four minutes," the Sat-Nav told them in a robotic, female voice.

"Speed up," the Doctor told Alex. He shifted the fire engine into fifth gear as they passed the speed limit once again. They passed under a large, metal arch. Or was it art? The phone rang again.

"Are you in?" the Doctor asked Amy, not wasting any time. He paused. "You need to get out of there!" No reply came from the other line. The Doctor sighed and stuck his head out of the window, looking at the roof of the engine.

"What're you doing?"

"Making sure everything's prepared for our arrival. Next left."

Alex swerved, taking the exit from the motorway. The Doctor withdrew his head and spoke back into the phone. "Amy, what's happening?" Silence. A few distant banging noises, but nothing. Alex looked nervous. The Doctor addressed him. "Let it coast again. Let me drive."

The authority in the Doctor's voice was such that Alex didn't argue. He took the vehicle out of gear again and swapped places. "Amy, talk to me!" the Doctor all but shouted down the phone. "Which window are you?"

The fire engine turned a corner and the Royal Leadworth came into sight. The Doctor wasn't slowing down though...

"Which window?" the Doctor repeated. Having received his answer, he hung up the phone. He steered slightly to line up the fire engine with his target.

"Gonna stop then?" Alex asked, bracing himself.

"Not yet." The Doctor squinted, looking through a window on the hospital's first floor. He passed Alex Rory's phone. "Text them will you? Tell them to duck."

"To what?"

"Duck!"

Alex did as the Doctor asked. He looked up at the hospital and gasped. It was within touching distance. The Doctor slammed on the breaks, bringing the fire engine to a crunching stop. He laughed in triumph and clambered out of the window onto the roof of the truck.

"Come on!" he called to Alex. Alex followed him out of the window and saw what the Doctor had meant when he'd prepared everything for their arrival. The fire engine's ladder had shattered a window on the first floor, which the Doctor was now climbing towards. Alex hurried up the ladder after him and as he fell through the window and into the Coma Ward.

"Right! Hello," the Doctor greeted Amy and Rory, mere feet from the shattered window. Alex collapsed through after him. "Are we late?" He looked at the clock above, Alex noticed, a woman with two children. Prisoner Zero? "No, three minutes to go. So there's still time."

"Time for what, Time Lord?" the woman asked him. She smirked.

"Take the disguise off, they'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies!" the Doctor tried, approaching her.

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire!"

The Doctor chuckled, prompting looks of slight surprise from Amy, Rory and Alex. "Okay! You came to this world by opening a crack in Space and Time. Do it again! Just leave."

"I did not open the crack."

"Somebody did."

"The cracks in the skin of the universe! Don't you know where they came from?" Zero asked him, patronisingly. The Doctor held her gaze, questioningly. She adopted a look of triumph. "You don't, do you?" Zero's voice changed, so that it fit, seemingly, into one of the small children's speech patterns. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know! Doesn't know, doesn't know!" it chanted, irritatingly. The voice reverted back to normal. "The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

The Doctor didn't reply. The silence in the room was deafening, until a clunking broke it. Amy glanced at Alex, confused. The Doctor, however, grinned.

"And we're off! Look at that!" he told everyone, pointing at the clock. Where it had shown 11:49, it now showed 0:00. "Yeah I know, just a clock, whatever. But d'you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And, d'you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word, all over the world, _quantum_-fast! The word is out!" Prisoner Zero's mocking face had been replaced with a steel-cold glare of contempt. It was the Doctor's turn to be patronising. "And do you know what that word is?"

Alex suddenly realised. "Ohh," he breathed. "Genius."

"The word is 'Zero'. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle-fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in... what? Under a minute?" Once more, the Doctor removed Rory's phone from his pocket. "The source by the way," he mentioned, holding the phone up, "is right here."

As if on cue, the Coma Ward was bathed in a blinding, white light accompanied by a familiar whirring of engines that signalled an arrival. Alex, Amy and Rory crowded round the small window, looking up into the sky at the giant Atraxi battleship.

"Oh-h, and I think they've just found it!"

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm still in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a _phone_. Not _me_."

"Yeah! But this is the good bit. I mean this is my _favourite_ bit. Do you know what this phone is full of?" The Doctor was ecstatic, emphasizing each word by shaking the phone victoriously. Zero didn't reply, staring blankly at the Doctor. "Pictures of you!" he went on. "Every form you've learned to take, right here. And being uploaded about... _now_," he said as he sent the images to the Atraxi mother-ship. "And the final score is: No TARDIS, no Screwdriver, two minutes to spare... _who da man_?" he threw his arms out to his sides in glee, expecting a glorious reaction. No-one spoke. Amy grimaced in pity. Rory looked at him in disbelief. Alex face-palmed slightly. Prisoner Zero's gaze hardened, if that were possible. The Doctor took all of the negativity in in irritation, before breaking the silence. "Ohh. Never saying that again – fine."

"Then I shall take a new form," Prisoner Zero informed them, passing over the Doctor's interjection completely.

"Oh, stop it. You know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link!"

"And I've had years." Upon finishing her sentence, the image of the woman and her children faded in a smokey, orange light. Amy fell to the floor. Rory and Alex dived to her side as the Doctor twisted at the sound and joined them.

"No! Amy," he grabbed Amy's cheeks, holding her face in his hands. "You've gotta hold on!" he told her unconscious face. "Amy!" he seemed to be attempting to enter her subconscious, but was blocked. "You've got to stay awake, please!" The light from the Atraxi ship disappeared as it scanned the entire building frantically for the readings that the Doctor had provided them with.

"It's been in her house for twelve years!" Alex cried. "How could we have missed that?" Alex glanced up at Prisoner Zero and widened his eyes in horror.

"Doctor," Rory tapped the Doctor's shoulder, having seen the same thing.

The Doctor looked up. Prisoner Zero had indeed taken a new form. Standing in front of them were two almost identical clones of the Doctor and Alex stood shoulder-to-shoulder. But they were colder; their eyes were empty and so were their faces.

"Okay, pretty good likeness for you," the Doctor said, glancing at Alex.

"Why copy _me_?"

"Yeah. And the other one's rubbish, who's that supposed to be?"

"That's you," Rory told him incredulously.

"Me?" the Doctor looked downwards at his clothes and realised the cold-Doctor was wearing the same thing. "Is that what I look like?"

"You don't know?"

"Busy day." He got to his feet and approached Prisoner Zero again, taking in the familiar face of his friend and the not-so-familiar face of himself. "Why us then? You're linked with her? Why're you copying us?"

"I'm not," came a voice. The cold-Doctor and cold-Alex parted, revealing a small, ginger child behind them, holding one of their hands each. The view was identical to that of twelve years ago, in Amelia's bedroom. "Poor Amy Pond," cold-Amelia said, her voice not matching her appearance. "Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a _disappointment_ you've been," she finished, harshly.

The Doctor continued to look at cold-Amelia intently. Eventually, he spoke-up. "No, she's dreaming about us because she can hear us." The Doctor ran back to the real Amy. "Alex, don't talk, don't make a sound," he told him. "Hopefully that'll be enough to make her stop dreaming about you." He grasped Amy's face again and spoke directly to her, through her dreams. "Amy. Don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside – I tried to stop you, but you did... you went in the room... you went inside! Amy... dream about what you saw!

"No... no!" cold-Amelia cried in anger. She, cold Doctor and cold-Alex became once-more shrouded in an orange glow. The silhouettes of their bodies merged and transformed. When the glow dissipated, the moist, yellow-eyed, razor-toothed, vicious-looking alien snake from Alex and Amy's memory remained. It hung from the ceiling, swaying from side to side, snarling. The Doctor approached it one last time.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero," he told it as it roared ferociously. "A perfect impersonation of yourself..." The light from the Atraxi ship flooded the room once more. It encased Prisoner Zero who now swayed violently, snarling and shrieking in apparent pain.

"_Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained."_ The voice of the Atraxi reverberated around the room.

Zero stopped moving as teleportation began, and stared right into the Doctor. "Silence Doctor. Silence will fall." It faded from view and, as it did so, the whirring of engines intensified and then faded as the ships departed from the hospital, having captured their prey. Alex jumped from his position next to Amy and gazed out of the window at the large, embodied eyeball as it disappeared from sight. The Doctor joined him. The sun shone through the shattered window and birdsong floated into the ward. The Doctor withdrew his head and took out Rory's phone one last time.

"The sun! It's back to normal, yeah?" Rory asked.

"Seems to be..." Alex muttered.

"That's... that's good yeah? That means it's over!" The Doctor, typing in a number on the phone, strolled past Rory patting him on the head, as Amy began to regain consciousness. Rory held her up compassionately. "Amy," he said sympathetically. "Are you okay, are you with us?" he asked, as she sat up, grunting.

"What happened?" she groaned.

"He did it! The Doctor did it!"

"No I didn't," he cut in, still typing.

"What _are_ you doing?"

"Tracking the signal back. Sorry in advance."

"About what?"

"The bill..." Rory began to protest, but the Doctor was through. "Oi, I didn't say you could go!" he yelled into the phone. "Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation, this is a fully-established level five planet. And you were gonna burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching...? You lot. Back 'ere, now." He hung up the phone and threw it back to Rory. "Okay... now I've done it." He strolled from the room, followed closely by Alex and, pulling herself to her feet, Amy. Rory stayed sat on the floor in disbelief.

"Erm, did her just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?"

Alex turned to him. "It's sort of what he does."

"Where are you going?" Amy's voice floated into the room, prompting Rory to jump to his feet and follow Alex into the corridor. They jogged to catch up to the Doctor.

"The roof! No... hang on," the Doctor paused and threw open a door to the side. They emerged into what seemed to be an employee locker room.

"What's in here?" Amy asked, as the Doctor opened ajar lockers, seizing random garments and either discarded them without a thought, or held on to them.

"I'm saving the world, I _need_ a decent shirt! To hell with the Raggedy." he threw a jacket over his shoulder, which Rory caught and bundled into a pile with various other rejected clothes. "Time to put on a show!" He turned to Alex, whose clothes were also ripped from the TARDIS crash. "You might want to change too."

"I think I'd rather wear my own, actually," Alex mentioned, eyeing a particularly moth-eaten shirt in Rory's arms.

"Suit yourself," the Doctor untied his old tie and threw it to the ground.

"You just summoned aliens back to Earth!" Rory said. "Actual aliens! Deadly aliens! Aliens of death! And now you're taking your clothes off... Amy, he's taking his clothes off."

The Doctor was indeed hurriedly removing his torn shirt, revealing the bear chest underneath. "Turn your back if it embarrasses you!"

"Gladly!" Alex called and promptly turned away.

"Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people y'know..." Rory swiftly turned away as the Doctor unzipped his trousers and pulled them down, putting an end to his protests. "Are you not gonna turn your back?" Rory whispered to Amy, who was smirking and staring at the semi-naked Doctor.

"Nope."

"Oh yes!" the Doctor cried, yanking open a nearby locker and pulling out a beige tweed jacket. "Hold that," he told Rory, chucking it over his head. The Doctor attached a pair of braces to his new-found trousers and turned up his collar. He grabbed a bunch of varied ties and hung them around his neck. "Shoes, anyone? I need some shoes." He turned to be met with Alex and Rory's backs facing him. "Oh, I'm _done_! Find me some shoes."

Sighing, Alex kicked open the nearest locker and grasped the only pair within. "How about these things?" he asked sarcastically, showing him a pair of battered old, lace-up, brown boots.

The Doctor grinned and grabbed them from a bemused Alex. He shoved his feet inside which, somehow, fit them perfectly. "Right," he turned to Rory. "How do we get to the roof?"

Rory, with a face like thunder, turned and left the room, leading the group to the stairs to the roof. When they reached the top Rory seemed unwilling to open the roof-top door. He stood aside, allowing the Doctor to exit first. They all piled out of the heavy metal door, which Rory then closed. He, Alex and Amy gazed at the Atraxi ship, buzzing and crackling, hovering in the air above them, apparently waiting.

"So this was a good idea was it?" Amy asked as the Doctor advanced. "They were leaving!"

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." He raised his voice, speaking to the Atraxi. "Come o-o-o-on then! The Doctor will see you _now-w-w_!

The eyeball became once more disembodied, as it rapidly descended from its web and confronted the Doctor, taking him in. His human friends backed up a little, apprehensive. The Atraxi scanned the Doctor.

"_You are not of this world_," it told the Doctor, as he pulled up his braces.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He compared a couple of ties around his neck, before holding them up in front of the Atraxi. "Hm... I dunno. What d'you think?"

"_Is this world important?"_

"_Important_?" the Doctor asked incredulously, removing a tie and throwing it towards Rory. "What does that mean, 'important'? Six billion people live here, is that important? And here's a better question – is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He chucked another tie towards Rory, which Amy placed on the clothes pile. The Doctor continued. "Well come on, you're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?

The Atraxi displayed a hologram, showing a number of images from the history of humanity – soldiers, armies, buildings, explosions, world leaders – it spoke. "_No_."

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

Again, the hologram displayed images of a vast array of people. "_No_."

"Okay! One more, just one. Is this world protected? 'Cos you're not the first lot to have come here, there have been _so_ many!"

The hologram showed Cybermen, Daleks, Racnoss, Ood, Sycorax, Sontarans, Sea Devils, Reapers, and Hath. Alex stared at it, recognising some, though some were different from how he remembered.

The Doctor finished tying his chosen tie as the hologram completed. "And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?"

The hologram changed once more. It displayed an elderly man with long, grey hair. It changed to a younger man, with dark hair. Again, an older man with a somewhat large nose. Fourth, a man with a bigger nose, and hair that was almost a small afro. A man with long-ish, blonde hair wearing cricket gear. Another curly-haired man, followed by a man with an unusual hat on his head and an umbrella. The image changed to yet another man with long curly hair. The next image was of a man with large ears, a large nose and a serious face. The next image, Alex recognised. It was the Doctor. All of the previous images, Alex realised, were also the Doctor. The Doctor's ten previous incarnations. The Doctor Alex had known, the tenth Doctor, disappeared. The new Doctor stepped through it. The _same_ Doctor, Alex corrected himself. Alex had been so immersed in the hologram that he hadn't noticed the Doctor retrieve the tweed jacket from Rory.

"Hello," he said to the Atraxi. "I'm the Doctor." He stood, wearing his tweed jacket, red and white shirt, red bow-tie, black jeans and scruffy boots. "Basically... _run_."

The Atraxi seemed to contemplate its options for a second. Then, without warning, the eyeball returned to its web, whirred its engines and soared away into the distance, putting as much distance as possible between itself and the unstoppable machine of a man behind it.

Alex winced. His hand dived into his pocket and realised his TARDIS key had lit-up in a bright orange light, burning him slightly. He wheeled round to look at the Doctor. He'd disappeared. He turned back to the door which was now open. He saw a mop of messy, black hair disappear down the staircase...


	6. The Eleventh Hour: Five

_Quite a short part. But if this had been part of Part 4, it would've been too long. And I wanted to get something new uploaded! Anyway, The Eleventh Hour is now completed! I'll stick up the first Meanwhile in the TARDIS tomorrow (which I've already written – I'll leave uploading it for now, so _two_ chapters don't get buried), and then work begins on The Beast Below!_

The Eleventh Hour – Part 5

The Doctor was a fast runner. Alex had to run his absolute fastest to keep up with him. The authorities had retrieved the apparently abandoned fire engine from the front of the hospital, so they'd had to sprint all the way back to Leadworth. The Doctor vaulted the gate into Amy's garden and slowed as he approached the TARDIS. Alex joined him at his side as they both took in the same old TARDIS. The brand new TARDIS. It was bluer. A lighter blue. It seemed 'boxier' somehow, and had a St John's Ambulance sticker on the door.

"Okay..." the Doctor spoke to it. "What've you got this time?" he took his key out and rather violently shoved it into the lock. He grinned at Alex, who smiled in anticipation. They pushed the doors open slowly and stepped inside. Both were bathed in an orange glow. Their mouths dropped open.

"Look at you..." the Doctor breathed.

"How... did it do that?"

"Oh you sexy thing. _Look_ at you!" The Doctor pulled Alex inside and closed the doors. He jogged forwards and leapt up the stairs to the console in the centre. Alex advanced slowly. The console stood on a raised, glass surface, surrounded by safety banisters, with a number of chairs placed around the edge. Beneath it laid pools of what appeared to be oil and a bit of storage. There were a total of five exits from that room alone. Alex walked up the stairs and fully appreciated the console itself, which the Doctor was already controlling. A monitor hung from the ceiling, in the style of an ancient, leather-bound television. Foot pedals could be found beneath, which appeared to be foot pumps and drum pedals. Gallifreyan text decorated the separate glass panels. On the console itself, there were everyday objects, such as door knobs, taps and a compass as well as more conventional controls such as numerous levers. The Doctor pulled the largest of them and, laughing, set the TARDIS into motion. The Time Rotor began to move. It, too, had changed. From its old cylindrical form, it now seemed to be stylistically shaped. No sparks showered from the console as it moved, despite a hammer being connected to it by string. The Doctor already seemed to understand how the controls operated.

"Landed!" he cried. Alex was yet to speak. "What d'you think?" the Doctor asked him.

"It's... different."

"Yeah. New me, new TARDIS, new Screw... hold on." He typed on a typewriter and looked back up. "Shouldn't take long."

"H- how did it do that?"

"Same way as me. It's damaged irreparably, it heals itself, but changes. It's got stuff like this on it," he pointed to the taps and typewriter "because it uses whatever it can find to make the console work. They would've just been pulled from storage in the depths of the TARDIS."

"I love it!" Alex said, emphatically.

"Me too," the Doctor chuckled, clapping Alex on the shoulder. Alex realised the Doctor had said they'd landed.

"Where are we?"

"Oh, only the moon. Just wanted to run her in," the Doctor opened the doors. They were indeed located in the bleakest of landscapes. Nothing but yellowy-brown dust and rock for as far as the eye could see. The Earth floated in the sky like a heavenly angel. "But _this_ is boring!" he slammed the doors shut and ran back to the console.

"What about Amy and Rory?"

"Yeah, I know. We're going back." He used the controls and pulled the main lever. The Rotor began to move again. Within seconds, they'd landed. "We've only been gone a few minutes," the Doctor informed Alex. They approached the door and walked out of it.

"It's dark," Alex pointed out. It was. "More than a few minutes then, yeah?"

"Maybe a bit more, yeah,"

"Thought you could control it perfectly?"

"I can! Get back in there. I'll bring her in. In _fact_, go to the wardrobe, find some new clothes. Your stuff should still be there."

Shaking his head and chuckling, Alex pushed the TARDIS door open and went inside. Where the hell was the wardrobe? A light lit-up over the staircase to Alex's right. "Worth a try..."

T H E E L E V E N T H H O U R

Alex jumped back down the stairs and into the console room. He had put on a pair of black jeans similar to the Doctors, along with a dark-blue checked shirt, with rolled-up sleeves. Underneath, he wore a short-sleeved plain white t-shirt. He had donned a pair of the Doctor's old Converse on his feet. The TARDIS door opened itself. Alex grinned and leant on the safety banister around the console level, awaiting Amy and the Doctor to enter. And enter they did. Amy toddled in hesitantly, waiting to see what she would find within. The Doctor followed her in and closed the door. The Doctor passed her and stood with Alex. They watched Amy closely, taking in the kingdom she found herself in; her eyes were wide open, the chocolate brown of them shining through.

"Well?" the Doctor asked her. "Anything you wanna say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all." Amy was speechless. "What was it you said?" he asked Alex as he jumped up the stairs to the console level.

"Something about 'smaller on the outside' I think."

"Yeah. That was weird. It's usually 'bigger on the inside'. Ah well. Change is good."

"I'm in my nightie..." Amy finally uttered, finding her voice.

"Oh don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And, possibly, a swimming pool!"

"Nah," Alex confirmed.

"Oh. I'll find it eventually. So!" he addressed Amy now. "All of Time and Space, everything that ever happened or ever will... where d'you wanna start?"

Amy shook herself and climbed the stairs. "You are so sure I'm coming."

"Yeah. I am."

"Why?" she demanded, playing with the console.

"'Cos you're the Scottish girl in the English village. And I know how that feels."

"Oh do you?" Amy replied, slightly sarcastically. Alex grinned.

"Well all these years living here, most of your life. And you've still got that accent; yeah, you're coming!" The Doctor twisted the tap controls on the TARDIS, trying them out.

"He's got a point y'know," Alex piped up. "Twelve years, still got the accent!"

"Fourteen," Amy corrected.

"Four...teen?"

"Well, yeah. We might've... overshot a little," the Doctor told Alex sheepishly.

"By two years."

"Yeah, thereabouts..."

""_I can control the TARDIS near-perfectly!"_" Alex quoted. "Key word being 'near', yeah?"

"I _can_ control it!"

"If you can control it, can you get me back for tomorrow morning?" Amy butted in.

"It's a time machine; I can get you back for five minutes ago. Why? What's tomorrow?"

"Nothing," she said dismissively. "Nothing. Just, y'know, stuff."

"Alright then. Back in time for 'stuff'." A thick rod with black, white, silver and gold decor extended from the TARDIS console as the Doctor walked past. He grabbed it at once "Oh, a new one!" he aimed the new Sonic Screwdriver at nothing in particular and pressed the button. A bright, green light shone from the tip, accompanied by the same old noise. "Lovely..." He placed it in his pocket and whispered to the TARDIS. "Thanks dear."

"It's green," Alex pointed out.

"Like I said. New me, new TARDIS, new Screwdriver. Get over it," he said cheekily. He typed co-ordinates into the type writer.

Alex joined Amy, who was still attempting to use the controls. "Crazy, right?" he nudged her.

She smiled, shaking her head in wonder. "How do you get used to this?"

"It grows on you." He looked up and around the new room. "Best home you could ask for though."

"Home? Don't you have-?"

"Oh I do, yeah. But... it's never the same after this place."

Amy's face dropped slightly. "Why did he bring you along with him? Take you from your home I mean."

"Saved his life. About two years ago now. I thought he was taking me along for a thank you, like a reward. That he'd drop me home and I'd never see him again. But he didn't. We went from one place to the next. I thought every trip would be my last, that he'd just drop me one day. Then, he saved _my_ life and I thought... 'this is it. Debt repaid. I'm going home'. But I didn't. We just moved on. Never stopping, never waiting, just... onwards and upwards... He'd drop me off home for a visit from time to time. But he comes back. He always comes back."

Amy gazed at Alex in wonder as he told his story. Alex looked at the floor, through the glass into one of the pools of the oily substance, as if seeing his past in it. Amy shook him out of it. "He took twelve years,"

Alex wasn't sure how to explain that. "Like he said... engines were phasing. The TARDIS was broken, he couldn't control it properly."

"But why _did_ he come back?"

To Alex, it was obvious that the Doctor, despite showing the appearance of busying himself with the console, was listening in. He was using the controls too loudly, for starters. "Ask him yourself," he told Amy, thinking he might as well bring the Doctor into the conversation. She whirled around.

"Why me?" she asked him.

"Why not?"

"No seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. I didn't save your life. Why me?"

"I don't know – fun. Do I have to have a reason?" He pulled another strange control.

"People always have a reason."

"Do I look like people?"

"Yes."

"Like I said. Scottish girl in the English village. You deserve a break."

From standing with the console between them, they came together to talk face-to-face, in front of Alex, who had placed himself on one of the chairs.

"And that's it?" Amy shrugged questioningly. "Just that?"

"Just that. Promise."

Alex glanced past Amy and the Doctor to the monitor and frowned. It was making a bit of a racket... the Doctor noticed too. He turned it off.

"Okay," Amy muttered. She walked away and leant on one of the banisters as Alex had. He and the Doctor joined her.

"So you okay then?" the Doctor asked her. "'Cos this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit... y'know." He turned to Alex. "Especially you."

"Yep, fine. Yeah."

"That sick's probably still floating around in space somewhere. Few flecks."

Amy chuckled as Alex glared at the Doctor in slight disgust. "Charming."

"I'm fine. I'm fine," Amy assured the pair. It's just... there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true! I thought- well, I started to think that maybe you were just like, a mad-man with a box. And a friend," she added as an afterthought.

"Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me 'cos it's important and one day your life may depend on it." Alex rolled his eyes and took a seat again. Amy, on the other hand, was entranced. The Doctor continued. "I am definitely a mad-man with a box!" Amy grinned and the Doctor laughed a strange, new laugh. "Hahaa, yeah!" he ran back to the console and input the final co-ordinates. Alex knew what was coming and he and Amy joined the Doctor at the console.

"Goodbye Leadworth! Hello everything," the Doctor cried as he pulled what seemed to be the main lever of the console. The Time Rotor began to move and the TARDIS's signature engine noise sounded. As the entire room shook, Alex and his two friends laughed, on their way to their new destination.


	7. Meanwhile: One

Meanwhile in the TARDIS 1

The Doctor and Alex watched as Amy grew accustomed to the brand-new, wonderful environment. She turned slowly on the spot, taking it all in, speechless.

"Where shall we take her first?" the Doctor whispered, smiling mischievously.

"I'm feeling the randomizer," Alex replied.

"Ohh, no. Don't really want to land her right in the middle of a Dalek fleet." The Doctor set the TARDIS into motion.

"Yeah, fair point."

"Why is it a phone box?" Amy asked suddenly, interrupting the whispered conversation.

"Sorry, what?" the Doctor asked innocently.

"On the outside, it said 'police box', why-y have you labelled a time machine 'police box', why not 'time machine', is that too obvious? And what is a police box? I mean, do policemen come in boxes? I mean are you two policemen?" Amy stopped and glanced at the Doctor. "No, look at your hair. Actually, just _look_ at your hair!" The Doctor put his hands to his hair and repositioned it, throwing a questioning glance in Alex's direction, who shrugged. He got back to work with the controls. Amy continued. "Do you ever look at your hair and just think "who-o-o-o-a, it just won't stop, and my chin! Look, I'm wearing a bow-tie! Shoot me now!"" She turned back to Alex. "Am I rambling?" He nodded. "The question stands," she continued.

"It's not really a police box which, by the way, is a special kind of telephone box that policeman used to use!"

"Kind of like a portable prison. Temporary," Alex chipped in.

"Right. Telephone box. There's a light on the top, do you need to change the bulb?"

The Doctor sighed. "Amy, stop. Breath," he told her, trying to calm her. She co-operated. For a second.

"Why doesn't the air get out? It is made of wood!" Amy continued to pace the floor, still taking-in her surroundings. The Doctor sighed and gestured to Alex to take-over.

"It's not really wood," he told her, grinning. He jumped up from the chair and walked over to the wall. Amy followed him. "Look!" he rapped at it, a metallic tang reverberating around the room. "Some... alien metal. Right?" he asked the Doctor.

"Sort of, yeah," he replied, not looking up from the console.

"You've got a wooden time machine," Amy said, clearly not having taken in any of what Alex had said. She walked back up the stairs to the main Console. "Do you feel stupid?" she faced the Doctor again. "Sorry, back to the bow-tie." The Doctor stood up and faced her.

"It's camouflage."

"Here we go," Alex muttered under his breath, back in his chair, relaxing for the imminent speech. The Doctor ploughed on.

"It's disguised as a police telephone box from 1963. Every time the TARDIS materialises in a new location, within the first _nano_second of landing," he began, emphasizing his words with a click of a finger, "it analyses its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of _everything_ within a thousand-mile radius and determines which outer-shell would blend in best with the environment!"

Alex chuckled. He had to admit, it was an impressive speech. Amy smiled too.

"And then, it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963," the Doctor finished anticlimactically. Amy's smile subsided.

"Oh. Why?"

"It's probably a bit of a fault actually, I- I've been meaning to check," he busied himself with the controls again.

"What, it's a police box every time?" she shifted her eyes to Alex, who nodded cheerfully.

"Yeah, I suppose, now you mention," the Doctor responded defensively.

"How long's it been doing that?" Amy asked, keeping an eye on Alex.

"_Ages_!" he mouthed.

"Ohh, you know, not long."

"Okay," Amy nodded, concealing a smile. "Okay, but what about the windows? There are windows on the outside, where do they go? Is it a cry for help?"

"What?"

"The bow tie-e-e!"

"Nah," he beamed, fixing said bow tie. "Bow ties are cool!"

Realisation dawned upon Amy's face. "And you're an alien!"

"Yeah! Well, in _your_ terms yeah. In _my_ terms, _you're_ the alien! In quite a few people's terms probably!"

"Your terms?" she turned to Alex, who frowned.

"Nah. Human as they come."

"You are _not_ wrong there!" the Doctor stuck his head past the console, looking at him. Alex threw a ball of paper at it.

"What kind of alien?"

"Well, a nice one, you know," he threw the paper back. "Definitely one of the nice ones! Isn't that right?"

"Yeah... can't deny that."

Amy nodded. "So you're like a space, er, squid, or something. Are you like a tiny little slug in a human suit?"

Alex collapsed from his chair, giggling. "I'm gonna remember that one," he told the Doctor through laughs, who produced another ball of paper and threw it at Alex again. Amy took a couple of deep breaths and then joined Alex at the chair, kicking him slightly. He budged up, making room for her. She collapsed into the chair.

"Okay. Think I'm done now," she told Alex.

"Amy Pond!" the Doctor cried, pulling the landing lever. "You've barely started." He looked at Alex. Alex looked at the Doctor. Then at Amy. Then at the TARDIS doors. Then back to the Doctor, who had a streak of misbehaviour on his face. He ran to the chair and grabbed Amy's hand, pulling her up. He ran towards the door.

"Because!" he continued. "Do you know what I keep in here?" He arrived at the door and grasped the handles. Amy and Alex arrived behind him. The Doctor turned to face them.

"What?" asked Amy, enthusiastically.

"This never gets old," Alex whispered, gazing at the door as if he were trying to see through it.

"Absolutely everything." The Doctor pulled the doors open slowly and turned to join his two companions. The three of them were bathed in a light-blue light. Meteors and shooting stars rained down in the distance. Beautiful, magnificent stars dotted the sky and there, to the right of the view, thousands of light-years away was a glorious, blue galaxy, producing the mystical light that lay across them. Amy's face showed a mixture of fear, shock, amazement and wonder. She edged closer towards the door, before spinning round.

"We're in space."

"Yep." The Doctor nodded out of the door. "That's space."

"But it can't be."

"But it is."

"You're human." Amy walked back to stand next to Alex. "It's special effects isn't it? It is though, it can't be real. It's special effects."

"Nah," Alex murmured, still enthralled with the view outside. "Special effects are boring compared to this."

Amy approached the door again. "It's got to be," she whispered.

"Get out." The Doctor's face showed that same streak of misbehaviour. It wasn't an offer. It was a command.

"W-what?" Amy squeaked.

"No, seriously." The Doctor and Alex grabbed an arm each and threw her out of the TARDIS with a shriek. "Get out!"


	8. The Beast Below: One

_Here we go with episode two! This part seems a bit rushed to me. Ah well. I'll do my best on the next one! Two more Beast Belows coming at you in the near future!_

The Beast Below – Part One

Amy was floating, hanging out of the TARDIS doors in the zero-gravity of space. With her white nightie and dressing gown, she looked like an angel, hanging in the sky majestically. Alex and the Doctor held a leg each to ensure she didn't fly off into nothingness. They were chuckling at Amy as she stared in awe at the beauty and loneliness of the expanse of space before her.

"Come on, Pond," the Doctor called, bringing Amy to her senses. He and Alex heaved, bringing Amy back into the TARDIS. She landed in their arms and joined in with their laughter.

"Now d'you believe me?" the Doctor asked her.

"Okay! This box is a spaceship! It's really, really... a spaceship," she stuck her head out of the door again. "We are in space! Whoo!" she whooped. Withdrawing her head, she turned to the Doctor. "What're we breathing?"

"I've extended the air-shell, we're fine. What _are_ you doing?"

Alex was attempting to climb out of the TARDIS and to shimmy around it. The Doctor grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back inside.

"You've let me do it before," Alex complained.

"Stop trying to show-off," the Doctor whispered to him, while Amy was preoccupied with the outside. Something caught the Doctor's eye. "Now that's interesting!" he cried, bending down and looking at something far below the TARDIS's orbit.

It was a spaceship. But like no other Alex had ever seen. What appeared to be monumentally, impossibly high skyscrapers covered a similarly impossibly large, dome-shaped area. Words that Alex couldn't read from this distance were on each building, written in what appeared to be neon. The Doctor left the door and ran to the controls, explaining the ship. Alex wandered away from the door and joined him.

"Twenty-ninth century, solar flares roast the Earth. And the entire Human Race packs its bags and moves out 'til the weather improves! Whole nations-"

"Alex?" Amy called. He was about to reply, but the Doctor steamed on.

"- Migrating to the stars! I mean, isn't that amazing?"

"Doctor!"

Alex and the Doctor looked around at where Amy had been. She was gone. Puzzled, they went back over to the door to find her hanging out of the door, clinging to the doorframe by her fingertips.

"Come on!" the Doctor told them, seemingly oblivious to the effort Amy was exerting to stay connected to the TARDIS. "I've found us a spaceship!" Alex and the Doctor seized one of Amy's arms each and pulled her back into the safety of the TARDIS once more.

"That was your fault," the Doctor told Alex, as Amy found her feet.

"Eh?"

"Putting ideas in her head!" The Doctor closed the doors. He jumped back up the stairs to the console and brought up an image of the ship below on the large monitor. Alex and Amy leant on the safety banister, looking at it.

"This is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, all of it. Bolted together, and floating in the sky... Starship UK. It's Britain! But metal."

The words on the buildings, Alex noticed, were names of counties; Surrey, Yorkshire...he and Amy chuckled in admiration. The Doctor's voice reflected this.

"That's not just a ship. That's an idea. That's a whole country! Living and laughing and... shopping! Searching the stars for a new home..."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy pleaded.

"'Course we can but first, there's a thing."

Amy frowned. "A thing?"

"An important thing," the Doctor went on. "In fact, Thing One!" The Doctor picked up a magnifying glass to emphasize his point. "We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets."

"You _what_?" Alex nearly shouted, incredulously.

"Shut up a minute. Look at that," the Doctor pointed at the monitor. "That's interesting..." The monitor displayed a child. A little girl, sitting on a red, metal bench, dressed in a school uniform. She was crying.

"So, we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?" Amy asked, as the Doctor studied the child.

"I wouldn't go that far," Alex told her.

"Well y'know. If they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it. They've gotta keep filming and..." she looked at the monitor for the first time, taking in the weeping child. She was distraught. "... let it die. That's gotta be hard." She and Alex were drawn into the monitor, feeling sorry for the girl on it. Alex made an uncomfortable face.

"This is the down-side of travelling with the Doctor," he told Amy. "The aliens and the planets and everything... that's great. But you have to see... terrible things. This is the tip of the iceberg Amy. The absolute tip..."

"Don't think I can do that... Don't you find it hard being that detached and cold..?"

"Every day," Alex nodded. They both frowned, perking up. The Doctor had come into view on the monitor, comforting the girl. "What?" Alex asked. "How're you-?" He looked around the TARDIS. The Doctor had indeed disappeared from behind them.

"Doctor?" Amy asked no-one in particular.

The Doctor looked directly at the monitor and sighed in annoyance. He beckoned for them to join him outside.

"Didn't even realise we'd landed," Alex chuckled. Amy grinned in excitement and slight fear. They ran to the doors. Amy threw them open, gave a little shriek and stopped in her tracks, causing Alex to accidently kick the TARDIS door.

"Sorry," Amy said, as a short man on a bike cycled past. She stepped outside followed by Alex, who was hopping along, rubbing his toe.

"_Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored," _said a voice over the tannoy. Alex glanced at his surroundings. They appeared to be in a vast hall. Through the glass ceiling, Alex could see stars and the night sky. Bustling shoppers passed him in either direction, some laden-down with shopping bags, some hitching lifts on what appeared to be cycling taxis, and some perusing the many market stalls. Wind-up street lamps paved the way through the market and, on the walls, were booths with figures in them, not dissimilar to the robotic fortune-tellers you used to find in abandoned funfairs. The bald, rose-cheeked, smiling faces rotated from one side to the other, as if watching the people...

"I'm in the future," Amy uttered, also looking around. "Like hundreds of years in the future!" Her face dropped. "I've been dead for centuries..."

"Oh, that's nice!" Alex laughed. He paused. "Me too."

"Oh lovely... You're a cheery one," the Doctor put his arms around them both, steering them in a direction of his choosing. "Never mind dead, look at this place you two. Isn't it wrong?" he asked, emphasizing the last word.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked him.

"Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything, what's wrong with this picture?"

"Shops on a spaceship?" Alex tried.

"Everyone needs food. No, something else, try again."

"Is it... bicycles?" Amy asked as one cycled past. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles?"

"Says the girl in the nightie,"

"Oh my God, I'm in my nightie!" Amy stopped short, a look of horror on her face.

"It's fine," Alex assured her. "He took me to the fourth moon of Rigel Noon Six in nothing but pyjama trousers. You get used to it."

"Now, come on! Look around, you two. Actually look."

"_London market is a crime-free zone," _said the tannoy system.

The Doctor continued. "Life on a giant star ship. Back to basics: bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But, look closer. Secrets in the shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape on the _brink_ of collapse. A police state! Excuse me."

Leaving his position between Alex and Amy, the Doctor ran to a table at a nearby café and picked up a glass of water on the table. Ignoring the customer's protests, he placed it on the floor of the ship and looked at it in shock and surprise. He looked up and placed the glass back on the table, to the bemusement of the two customers sat at it.

"Sorry... checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish," the Doctor tapped his nose knowingly and rejoined Alex and Amy.

"What was that about?"

"Why did you do that with the water?"

"Dunno, I think a lot. Hard to keep track sometimes. Now... police state! D'you see it yet?"

"Where?" Amy and Alex asked in unison.

"There," the Doctor pointed them in the right direction, directly at the same girl they had seen crying on the TARDIS monitor. The Doctor led them over to a metal bench and sat down, leaving space either side of him for his friends. Amy and Alex exchanged confused glances as the Doctor sat in thought, looking at the girl. Eventually, Amy spoke up.

"One little girl crying. So?"

Eventually the Doctor spoke, but didn't take his eyes from the child. "Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention because they're hurt or afraid," he turned to Alex. "You should know that."

"Sorry?"

"Little sister," the Doctor reminded him. "When they cry silently, it's 'cos they just can't stop. Any older sibling or parents knows that,"

"Are you a parent?"

The Doctor skimmed right past the question. "Hundreds of parents walking past this place and not one of them's asking her what's wrong... Which means they already know and it's something they don't talk about... secrets! They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows – whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen."

Alex noticed the girl get up from the bench and walk away. He began to speak up, but the Doctor continued, cutting him off.

"Which means it's everywhere – Police state!"

"Where'd she go?" Amy asked.

"Desk 27. Apple-Sesame block, Dwelling 54A," the Doctor said immediately. "You're looking for Mandy Tanner." He reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a coloured identification card. "This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths, they're everywhere. And Alex, have a look at one of them, see if you find anything out about them."

"But they're just things,"

"They're clean." The Doctor looked disgusted. "Everything else here is all battered and filthy, look at this place. But no-one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of any of them!"

"Won't it be _really_ obvious then? When I start poking around them? They'll all look at me." Alex asked the Doctor, annoyed.

"I'm sure you can take being looked at, you're a big boy! Now come on, off you go. You look at the booths, Amy asks about the booths and I do my own thing! Meet back here in half an hour," he finished checking his watch. It wasn't just an order. It was a dismissal.

Alex sighed and got up from the bench, Amy's flustered questions to the Doctor soon becoming drowned-out by the general hubbub and noise of London market. As he approached the nearest booth, a few figures descended upon it. The two men wore darkest black robes with hoods up. Alex caught one of their eyes. The man returned the look with a hard, cold glare, before turning his back and surrounding the booth with his contemporaries. Deciding it best not to confront these mysterious men just yet, Alex turned his back on them and crossed the market, almost walking into the Doctor as he spun around to talk to Amy.

"So is this how it works, you two?" Amy called from the bench. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets! Unless there's children crying."

"Yes!" the Doctor spun on his heel again and strode away. Alex smiled at Amy apologetically.

"When she left, the girl walked that way," Alex told Amy helpfully, pointing down a corridor to the side of the market. Amy thanked him, returning the smile, and headed into the same corridor.

Alex chose a direction at random and walked. After a minute or so, he passed another booth, this one not surrounded by men in robes. He approached it, slaloming his way through the many cyclists and pedestrians. As he arrived at the booth, he noticed just how right the Doctor was. People were adapting their path of walking so that they wouldn't have to pass too close to the booth. There was an actual line where the dust and dirt stopped, as if someone had cleaned around the bottom of the booth, and nowhere else. He rapped on the glass of the booth. The thing inside stared back at him, a cheesy smile etched upon its shiny, metal face. It had stupidly rosy cheeks and a rosy nose, with a bald head. It wore a purple robe. Its head moved periodically from side to side, but showed no other sign of life. He tapped on the glass again. Someone passing behind him gasped and quickened her pace.

"What are you?" Alex whispered. He aimed a kick at the base of the booth. Clutching his toe in pain, he groaned. The booth made a clunking noise. He looked back up, and the machine's smiling face had been replaced with an angry, rather irritated-looking face.

"What are you doing?" asked a voice. Alex spun round to be confronted with the man in black robes he had caught the eye of previously. The cold glare had not disappeared.

"I-I was just... having a look."

"I think you had better follow me, sir."

"Oh no, that's okay. I've uh, got to be getting..."

"I think you had better follow me." The man interrupted. Alex noticed the absence of 'sir' this time. Alex seized the bull by the horns and gestured for the man to lead the way.

T H E B E A S T B E L O W

The man, who Alex discovered, was called a Winder, led Alex through corridor after corridor, answering Alex's questions in a monotone voice manner, in one-word answers. Eventually, the Winder led Alex into a list. There was another figure in a booth – a Smiler – in the lift. The Winder stood silently, still as a statue. Alex however, analysed the booth again.

"What're they for?" Alex asked the Winder.

"Surveillance." It replied bluntly.

"Why though? What's wrong with CCTV? Bit creepy isn't it?"

The Winder didn't reply. Alex continued speaking, unhindered.

"How long've they been around?"

Still, the Winder ignored him.

"Oh come on. Give me something back. Who installed them?"

The lift came to a halt. The doors opened and the Winder strode out of them. Alex attempted to follow, but the Winder blocked his path, throwing out his arm.

"No. You will stay. You are not getting off yet."

"And... when _am_ I getting off?"

"When the time is right." The Winder glared at Alex as the lift doors closed. Alex held his gaze. He felt the lift begin to descend again. Alex turned back to the Smiler.

"What are you? Why do they use you?" he muttered to the Smiler as well as to himself.

A voice sounded overhead, on a tannoy. "You have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. All Britons know the punishment should you do so. Your ignorance is your downfall." The lift clunked to a halt, its descent complete. The monitor informed Alex that it had reached floor zero. The silence following the ominous announcement was deafening. Alex leant on the balls of his heels ready for action. The floor rumbled. He wasn't ready for that. He cried out as the floor of the lift divided into two, revealing the chasm beneath.

"Your ignorance is your downfall," the tannoy repeated. Alex grasped onto the top of the Smiler booth and hung as the floor completely disappeared. He cried out in pain as a fairly strong electric current was passed through the booth and into him. He released the booth automatically and plunged into the depths of the abyss below.

T H E B E A S T B E L O W

Alex shot out of the tube and crashed into a mess of soppy gloop on a wet floor in an eerily-lit room. He grunted in disgust as his clothes and hair quickly became saturated in the disgusting mess. Someone in the darkness laughed.

"High-speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel!" said the familiar voice. The recognizable sound of the Sonic Screwdriver accompanied it.

"Doctor?" Alex asked in surprise as he staggered to his feet.

"Yeah! You alright?"

"Never better," Alex replied sarcastically, stumbling over to the Doctor, following the light of the Screwdriver.

"Where are we?" said another familiar voice from the squidgy floor. It sounded disgusted. A wet splat sounded as Alex pulled Amy to her feet.

"Ah, 600 feet down. Twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say... Lancashire."

"And... what is this?" Alex glanced around and noticed what appeared to be a network of the high-speed air cannons, all coming into different sections of the cave. Dim, red lights had also been installed.

"Looks like a cave," the Doctor announced, walking around, getting his bearings. "Can't be a cave, looks like a cave!"

"It's a rubbish dump! And it's mingin'" Amy concluded, sifting through the goo on the floor, playfully throwing some of the substance at her friends. Alex chuckled and kicked a particularly sopping lump at Amy. She picked it up and threw it at his face. He laughed in disgust as he wiped the mess off of his face. He smelt the lump and grimaced.

"Eugh. Doctor, this smells like... I don't know. Like rotting food or something,"

"Yeah... food refuse, organic. Coming from feeder tubes all over the ship,"

Amy joined the Doctor and Alex on the flood and felt the floor. "It's all squidgy, look! Like a waterbed!" she pressed down on the floor.

The Doctor went on. "... but feeding what, though?"

An unearthly wail came from somewhere behind the trio. Amy continued to feel the floor, whereas the Doctor jumped up in horror. Alex glanced around for the source of the noise. "What was that?" he asked, looking up at the Doctor. The look on his face didn't fill Alex with confidence.

"Erm... Amy, it's not a floor. Both of you stay still. Don't move. It's... err. So!"

"We're not going to like this, are we?" Alex asked, bracing himself. He knew the Doctor. True to form, he shook his head, shrugging. Alex sighed.

"It's a what?" asked Amy, innocently. All three were now on their feet.

"The next word is kinda the scary word," he rubbed Amy's arms and clapped Alex on the shoulder. "You probably wanna take a moment; get yourself in a calm place! Go 'ohmmmm'!"

Alex and Amy exchanged confused looks. They obliged.

"It's a... tongue," the Doctor finished.

"A tongue," Amy repeated, deadpan.

"A tongue," Alex repeated, despairingly.

"A tongue! A great big tongue!" Despite the very obvious danger they were in, the Doctor seemed ecstatic. Classic Doctor.

"Why are we on a tongue?" Alex burst out. "One minute, I'm in a lift the next I'm shoved down something's throat?"

"Why were you in a lift? I told you to look at the fellows in the booths!"

"A guy was taking me where I'd find stuff out. I don't know. Anyway, the lift said I'd be punished for asking about Starship UK or something."

"The _lift_?"

"Well, y'know. The tannoy. The voice in the lift."

"Doctor, how do we get out?" Amy interrupted.

The Doctor twisted on his heel and took out the Screwdriver, scanning the air. "Well, how big is this beastie? It's gorgeous! Blimey. If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach!" Another unearthly wailing disrupted the Doctor's rambling, stronger and louder this time. "Although not right now," he finished.

"Getting us out of here?" Alex reminded him.

"Okay," he continued to scan. "It's being fed through surgically-implanted feeder tubes. So, the normal entrance is..." the Screwdriver's light finally fell across the mouth of the beast. Razor-sharp teeth, at least six-foot high each stood in front of them, interlocking and blocking their escape. "... closed for business..."

"We can try though!" Amy cried as she began to make her way to the gate of a mouth. The moaning intensified, and the tongue began to move, knocking the three of them off-balance.

"No, no! Stop! Don't move!" the Doctor shouted out. Amy and Alex were thrown to the floor. "Too late! It's started."

"What has?" Amy shouted.

"Swallow reflex!" the Doctor pointed the Screwdriver towards the back of the throat, having been thrown to the ground himself.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors!"

"You're _what_?" Alex shouted, as GCSE Biology came flooding back to him.

"Chemo-_what_?" Amy shouted at them.

"The eject button!"

"How does a mouth have an eject button?"

"Think about it!" the Doctor's work seemed to have been done. The three of them stood on the now static tongue, as the groaning reached crescendo. The back of the throat opened and a cascade of putrid-smelling liquid gushed into the mouth. Alex and Amy stared in horror as it rushed towards them.

"Right then," the Doctor shouted over the noise. He straightened his bow-tie and sorted out his jacket lapels. "This isn't going to be big on dignity! Geronimo-o-o-o!" he cried out, as Amy screamed and Alex kept his mouth firmly shut, bracing himself.

The tidal wave engulfed the three of them as the tooth-gate unlocked and opened, sweeping the Doctor, Amy and Alex to freedom.


	9. The Beast Below: Two

_Sorry about the late update. A friend recently got me into BBC's Being Human, so I've spent the last couple of weeks watching two and a half series' worth of episodes! Anyway, back to writing now. I've got a bit of a conundrum though. I'm going to skip out Victory of the Daleks, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, because I can't see any decent way to insert Alex into the story. Originally, I'd planned to write a couple of original stories/flashbacks. First, Alex and the Doctor's first meeting, when Alex saved the Doctor's life. And in the place of THE/CB, when the Doctor saved Alex's life. But my mind is totally blank for good plot ideas, even though I've been thinking for a few weeks now. So after TBB, I might skip straight to The Time of Angels, with a small Meanwhile in the TARDIS, inserting those stories in the future. We'll find out soon enough :) Now on with the show!_

_Oh and, apologies for the slightly shorter part. Two reasons – a good place to end it, and I haven't uploaded anything in three weeks! I'll try and get the episode finished in the next few days (Key word "try!")._

The Beast Below – Part Two

Alex awoke with a splutter. He sat up and gagged. The smell, wherever he was, was obscene. He pulled himself to his feet and groaned in disgust; his clothes were damp with vomit, and he had a splitting headache. He realised there was movement behind him. He turned to see the Doctor waking, looking as bad as Alex felt. The Doctor glanced at Alex.

"You okay?" he asked, as Alex held out a hand to pull him to his feet.

"I've been better,"

The Doctor knelt down beside Amy and scanned her with the Screwdriver.

"Is she okay?" Alex asked.

"Hm? Oh, yes. She'll be fine. We'll let her wake up in her own time." He went towards the door at the end of the passage and examined it.

"Where are we? And where can I find a shower..." Alex joked, removing his shirt and throwing it as far down the corridor as possible to escape the stench.

"Overspill pipe I suppose. Big Boy's got to get ill from time to time."

Alex thought in silence for a moment. "Why were you two thrown inside it? What did you do?"

The Doctor told Alex of his experiences up top. He told him of the lack of engine-vibration, leading him to the conclusion that the engine was a dummy, which was why he'd placed the water on the ground on deck. He told him of the mysterious woman that had confirmed his suspicions. The Doctor took out the machine the woman had given him, showed it to Alex, and told him of how it had led him to Amy and the voting booth. He told her how the girl, Mandy, had told Amy and he about the voting laws of Starship UK. How Amy had been told through a video what the secret of Starship UK was and how she'd been forced to forget or face the consequences. And how, through pressing a protest button, he and Amy were forced into the creature's mouth, where Alex had been reunited with them moments later.

"So everyone who protests gets eaten by Big Boy?"

"Looks like it. Why'd _you_ end up there?"

Alex in turn delved into his experiences. He quickly informed the Doctor of what had happened to him, placing emphasis on the fact that he hadn't protested, but had simply questioned the Winders and Smilers. The Doctor listened intently, a confused, serious expression creeping across his young face. He raised his eyebrows.

"Police State," he explained simply. He turned back to work on the door. Amy's body suddenly gasped into life, spitting the remnants of vomit from her mouth. Coughing, she attempted to sit up. Alex joined her and helped her to her feet. Amy thanked him.

"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes," the Doctor said, turning to her. "You are covered in sick."

"Where are we?" Amy gasped.

"Overspill pipe, at a guess."

"It _stinks_!"

"Oh, that's not the pipe!"

"Oh," she muttered in disgust. She smelled her nightie and recoiled. "Can we get out?"

"One door," the Doctor told the pair, revealing a button that Alex had not previously seen. It was round, with a white light and the word "FORGET" printed on it. The Doctor went on. "One door switch. One condition; we forget everything we saw. Look familiar?" he asked Amy. "That's the carrot..." As if on cue, the entire pipe lit up, revealing two Smiler booths at the other end. Both were smiling. Alex grimaced, keeping his distance. "There's the stick!" the Doctor approached the Smilers.

"Doctor, I think we should-" Alex began.

"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?"

The Smilers' faces rotated, revealing their cross faces.

"No, that's not gonna work on me." The Doctor told them, un-phased. Contrastingly, Alex was beginning to back away slightly, as if predicting what was going to happen. "So come on, big old Beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. Is that how it works?"

The faces rotated again, showing angry faces, deep red eyes and bearing yellowing, disfigured teeth. Amy joined Alex is backing away.

"Oh stop it!" the Doctor told them in exasperation. "I'm not leaving, and I'm not forgetting! And what're you fellows going to do about it, stick out your tongues? Huh?"

There was a moment of silence. Then, ominously, a clunking sound filled the air as the fronts of the booths swung open and the Smilers stood up, advancing towards the group menacingly. They backed-up rapidly. Amy gasped as the door to the chamber was forced open and a woman strode inside, armed with a futuristic pistol. She mercilessly opened fire on the Smilers, shooting them both square in the chest. They fell to the ground, motionless. Alex raised his eyebrows, impressed, as the woman re-holstered her gun. She looked towards them, giving the trio their first proper look at her.

"Look who it is!" said the Doctor, having met the woman on deck. "You look a lot better without your mask!"

"You must be Amy," the woman smiled, shaking Amy's hand. "Liz. Liz Ten."

"Hi," Amy replied, breathlessly. Liz recoiled slightly, wiping her hand on her red, silk robe.

"Lovely hair Amy. Shame about the sick. You're... Alex, right?" she turned to Alex. He nodded, speechless. "Took your shirt off. Good move."

"Thanks," Alex glanced at the Doctor, slightly confused.

"You know Mandy, yeah?" Liz asked them. Alex realised that the girl the Doctor had told Amy to follow, Mandy, was also standing in the chamber. Liz put her arm around her in a motherly fashion. "She's very brave."

"How did you find us?" the Doctor spoke up.

"Stuck my gizmo on ya," she responded, referring to the machine the Doctor had used to find Amy. "Been listenin' in. Nice moves in the hurl escape. So. What's the big fella doin' 'ere?" Alex noted that Liz spoke in a cockney accent. Obviously hadn't been lost in over 1000 years.

You're over sixteen; you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it," the Doctor told her.

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how d'you know me?"

Liz smiled fondly. "You're a bit 'ard to miss love. Mysterious stranger. M.O. consistent with higher alien intelligence. Hair of an idiot. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

"Your family?"

The Smilers were producing small clunking, whirring noises. One was twitching.

"They're repairin'," Liz announced. "Doesn't take 'em long. Let's move!" She led the way out of the room, followed closely by Mandy, Amy and Alex, with the Doctor bringing up the rear.

"The Doctor," Liz said to the group, as she led them away from the room through what appeared to be a sort of warehouse. Puddles of something were dotted around, and gas seeped from old pipes. "Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you weren't she? Knighted _and_ exiled you on the same day! And so much for the Virgin Queen! You bad, bad boy," she chuckled cheekily.

Realisation dawned on the Doctor. "Liz Ten!"

"Yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And DOWN!" Liz whirled around, a gun in both hands. She opened fire again, as her companions dived to the floor, out of the firing line. Two Smilers that had stalked the group fell to the floor. Liz chuckled as they went down. She addressed the four people on the floor in front of her. "I'm the bloody queen mate. Basically, I rule."

T H E B E A S T B E L O W

The Doctor threw a door open, ushering the group inside. They emerged in a metal corridor, with cages to each side, and dim, industrial bulbs lighting their path. To their left was a room similar to a prison cell; it was blocked off with metal bars, locking in what was behind it. The Doctor stuck his head through the bars, looking at what was behind them.

"Oh yeah," said Liz. "There's these things." Behind the bars, there were enormous, brown forms, similar to scorpion tails, dotted with strange, green lights. They slammed against the bars in anger and frustration. "Any ideas?" she asked the Doctor.

"Looks like a serket's tail," Alex muttered. The Doctor shook his head and scanned it with the Screwdriver.

"Doctor, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road like it had burst through... like a root," Amy said.

"Exactly like a root," he said, looking at his readings. "It's all one creature, the same one we were inside. Reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."

"What," Liz asked. "Like an infestation?" The Doctor nodded. "Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my _subjects_ to it!" Liz stalked away, incensed. "Come on. Gotta keep moving." Mandy ran after Liz. Alex and Amy stayed behind with the Doctor.

"What is it Doctor? You know, don't you?" Alex said to him quietly.

The Doctor neither confirmed nor denied. "We should never have come here," he said simply. He looked at the roots sadly, before following Liz. Alex and Amy exchanged concerned glances, and followed the Doctor down the corridor. Catching up to Liz and Mandy, she led them up a flight of stairs to the desk of the Starship. Liz re-affixed her mask to her face and led them through corridors and stairways. Alex was unwilling to get in a lift until the Doctor assured him that all was okay; there was no Smiler inside. The doors opened again and Liz led them into a bedroom. It appeared to be her personal bedroom. She pointed Alex and the Doctor through a door to a bathroom where they might clean themselves up. Mandy took a seat on Liz's bed, where Liz herself lay down. Amy sat at Liz's dressing table and put her hair up, to keep it out of her face.

"So," Alex whispered to the Doctor, as they both washed their faces with water from the sink. "What is it? Because you know don't you? I know you."

"I've got an idea," he confided in Alex. "But like I said. We shouldn't have come here." The Doctor turned the tap off and strode back into Liz's room. In the middle of the room were a large variety of different cups and glasses, all filled with water or wine. The Doctor stepped among them, before turning to Liz, who was comfortably lying on her large, regal four-poster.

"Why all the glasses?"

"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something... and it's my duty to find out what."

"If you're queen, can't you just ask? Tell them to stop?" Alex asked, taking a seat on the end of the bed, before remembering his vomit-soaked backside, and jumping up.

"They wouldn't tell me. Better to find out for meself. That way I get 100% truth."

The Doctor smiled, picking up Liz's mask from the end of the bed. "The queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom!"

"Secrets are being kept from me," Liz said angrily, sitting up. "I don't have a choice! _Ten_ years I've been at this – my entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon."

"How old were you when you came to the throne?" The Doctor was still gazing at Liz's mask, apparently exceeding interested in it.

"Forty. Why?"

"What, you're fifty now?" Amy asked, finishing her hair and turning to Liz. "No way!" Amy sat on an elegant sofa at the end of the bed. When Liz didn't protest, Alex joined her there, deciding it was safe.

"Yeah. They slowed my body clock. Keeps me lookin' like the stamps," Liz chuckled.

"You always wear this in public," the Doctor asked, sitting down on the bed, Liz's mask still in his hands.

"Undercover's not easy when you're me! The autographs. The bunting."

The Doctor looked at it again. "Air-balanced porcelain... stays on by itself 'cos it's perfectly sculpted to your face..."

"Yeah... so what?" Liz asked, confused.

"Oh Liz. _So everything_."

A clunking signalled the lift doors to Liz's bed-chamber opening. A group of Winders walked into the room. Alex got up and backed away slightly, still wary from his earlier run-in. Also getting up, the Doctor sized-up to one of them.

"What're you doing?" Liz asked. "How _dare_ you come in here?"

"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK."

"No, no, no. That's what they said before they shoved me down big fella's throat." Alex joined the Doctor at his side

"You will come with us now," the Winder said, ignoring Alex's protests.

"Why would I do that?" Liz asked confrontationally, jumping from the bed. The Winder didn't speak at first. Then, ominously, a clunking noise sounded as the Winder's human head rotated impossibly, to eventually reveal the angry Smiler face. His colleagues' faces followed suit. The Doctor smiled sadly as Alex and Amy backed away slightly in shock.

"How can they be Smilers?" Amy whispered.

"Half Smiler, half human."

"Is that even possible?" Alex asked. "I mean... they're robots aren't they?"

"Think Cybermen." the Doctor told him. Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Whatever you creatures are," Liz whispered to the Smiler, up close to it now. "I am still your queen. On whose authority is this thing done?"

"The highest authority ma'am," said the Smiler, a robotic voice coming from its unmoving mouth.

"I _am_ the highest authority!"

"Yes ma'am. You must go now ma'am."

"Where?"

"The Tower, ma'am." Without another word, the Smiler/Winders turned on their heels and left the room. Liz looked at the Doctor for a moment, before striding after them.

"Go home, Mandy," she told her. Mandy looked questioningly at the Doctor, who smiled at her and pushed her through the door, allowing her to come. The Doctor, Alex and Amy remained in the bedroom.

"Should _we_ go?" Alex asked the Doctor.

"We can't trust those things,"

"Oh I think we can. Unfortunately. Come on." The Doctor left the room enigmatically, leaving Alex and Amy once more confused. They caught up to Liz, Mandy and the Smiler/Winders and descended in the lift. Eventually, it landed at floor zero which, Alex remembered, what scarily close to the beast. He surreptitiously grasped the handrail around the edge of the list. The lead Smiler/Winder, Peter, input a code and the lift doors opened. He stood aside to allow his colleagues and prisoners out. He walked forward and knocked on a large, ancient, wooden door that wouldn't look out of place in a church from the middle ages. After a moment, it was opened from inside, creaking classically.

Peter, the two other Winder/Smilers, Amy, Mandy, Alex, Liz and the Doctor entered the room. Similar to the door, it looked like a church room, built of stone, with wooden rafters lining the ceiling. However, the futuristic technology brought it forward in time. Smilers, Winders and hybrids milled around. A periodic buzzing of electricity down a pipe in the middle of the room seemed to be the centrepiece of operations. A heavy banging on metal accompanied the electrical buzzing.

"Doctor?" Amy asked as she, Alex and Mandy surrounded a grate in the floor. Three more scorpion tail-type roots were banging against the grate angrily. "Where are we?"

"The lowest points of Starship UK," he told them, marching into the room and spinning. "The dungeon!"


	10. The Beast Below: Three

The Beast Below – Part Three

Alex gazed at his surroundings. Despite the passing of one thousand years, the Tower of London still existed. It was certainly different from the time he'd gone there on a school trip back when he was thirteen. And, of course, it had been ripped from the ground and stowed away at the bottom of a vast spaceship containing the entire country.

"Ma'am?" An elderly man stepped forward. He was dressed in a Winder's robe, but had his hood down – 100% human. He wore glasses and had greying hair. Liz recognised him.

"Hawthorne! So this is where you hid yourself away," Hawthorne bowed to his queen. "You've got some explaining to do," she told him confrontationally.

"There's children down here. What's all that about?" the Doctor asked Hawthorne. He was right, Alex noticed, as a group of young children, none aged more than ten formed an orderly line and filed out of the dungeon. The Doctor tousled one boy's hair as he passed, but he did not respond.

"Protestors and citizens of limited value are fed to the Beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared; you're very lucky!"

"Yeah," The Doctor agreed. "Look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky! Except it's not a torture chamber is it? Well, except it _is_. Except it _isn't_!"

Amy turned to Alex, both of whom were still standing next to the pipe with the roots down it, but both watching the Doctor. "Is he always like that?"

"Oh yes," Alex sighed.

"Depends on your angle!" the Doctor finished. He and Liz stood around the large pipe in the centre of the room, the one with the bolt of electricity being fired down it. Alex, Amy and Mandy joined them.

"What's that?" Liz asked, pointing down the tube. Alex peered inside and saw a strange, pink-y mass, slightly dome-shaped. It looked horribly familiar...

"Well, like I say, it depends on your angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain being tortured relentlessly," a bolt of electricity shot down and shocked the pink mass as the Doctor spoke. Alex winced.

"Or?"

"It's the gas pedal. The accelerator. Starship UK's Go-Faster button."

Liz looked completely bemused. "Don't understand," she said bluntly. Alex did however. He raised his eyes to the man called Hawthorne and looked at him in disgust. Hawthorne averted his gaze to the floor.

"Don't you?" the Doctor asked her. "Try to, go on. Spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature," he gestured to the brain of the beast, "this poor, trapped, terrified creature... it's not infesting you. It's not invading. It's what you have instead of an engine!" The Doctor was enraged. "And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving."

A familiar far-away wailing sounded through the room. It seemed to give the Doctor an idea.

"Tell you what... normally it's above the range of human hearing." He ran to one of the pipes and seized the grate on it, yanking it off. One of the roots burst through, triumphant, free at last. The Doctor brandished the Screwdriver. "This is the sound none of you wanted to hear." Pointing it at the root, the wailing suddenly became clearer, louder, more anguished and painful.

"Stop it," Liz whispered, tears in her eyes. Alex was reminded of the Ood, all that time ago, imprisoned on the Ood-Sphere, being processed and controlled. When will the human race learn..? The Doctor de-activated the Sonic and the wailing faded away.

No-one spoke in the chamber. The silence was deafening. Eventually, Liz approached Hawthorne and broke it.

"You did this," she continued whispering.

"We act on instructions from the highest authority," he informed her mysteriously.

"_I_ am the highest authority," she said menacingly. "The creature will be released. Now." No-one moved. "I said now!" she shouted, bearing down upon Hawthorne. Still no-one moved. "Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz," the Doctor halted her in her tracks, Liz's mask in his hands once more. He held it up. "Your mask,"

"What about my mask?" she caught it deftly as the Doctor threw it to her.

"Look at it. It's old. At least two-hundred years old, I'd say."

"Yeah... it's an antique. So?"

"Yeah, an antique. Made by craftsmen over two-hundred years ago, and perfectly sculpted to your face?" Alex frowned. Amy and Liz did the same. "They slowed your body clock alright, but you're not 50. Nearer 300... and it's been a long old reign..."

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years!"

"Ten years. The same ten years, over and over again." He grabbed Liz's hand and lead her to a monitor in the corner of the room. Alex, Amy, Mandy and Hawthorne followed. "Always leading you here." In front of the monitor were two buttons – Forget and Abdicate. Liz began to understand. Slowly, she looked up at Hawthorne.

"What've you done?" she whispered.

"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers. All of us." With this, he pressed a button on top of the monitor and it burst into life. Liz slowly took a seat in front of the screen, distraught.

A picture of Liz appeared on screen. She looked exactly the same. "If you are watching this," she said, speaking in a far more regal accent, "if _I_ am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale." Images of the Beast, the Star Whale, flashed up on the screen, with a full bio and a fully 3D panoramic view of the creature. "Once there were millions of them," Liz went on. "They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind-"

Alex, who had stared at the floor, saddened by the grim revelations, perked up at this next one. He glanced at the Doctor worriedly, who had adopted a carefully-masked, but nevertheless obvious, pained expression.

"-And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our Sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came. Like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety..."

Alex noticed that Liz was close to tears. He sighed silently in despair for the poor creature. The Doctor showed no emotion on his face, but Amy was drawn into the screen in horror.

"If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end. The Star Whale will be released and the ship will disintegrate." The Liz on the screen was also teary-eyed. She took a deep breath before finishing. "I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision." The screen buzzed and faded into static.

"I voted for this," Amy stammered after a moment, troubled. "Why would I do that?" she asked the Doctor.

"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien..." the Doctor looked disappointed in Amy, and rather intimidating. "You took it upon yourself to save me from that. That was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know."

"I don't even remember doing it!"

"You did it, that's what counts."

"Doctor," Alex butted in. "Even if she did, she had your best interests at heart-"

"It was wrong,"

"I know. But like she said, she doesn't remember doing it. She must've had a valid reason, even if she can't remember it!"

Amy placed a hand on Alex's arm, telling him to stop. "I'm sorry," she whispered to the Doctor.

"Oh I don't care. When I'm done here you're going home," he said, walking to the controls of the electric charge.

"That is out of line Doctor, and you know it!" Alex burst out, following him.

"You too, if you're not careful."

"I didn't do anything! And nor did she!"

"I made a mistake," Amy joined in, leaning on the control panel. "_One_ mistake! I don't even remember doing it!" The Doctor didn't even look up at his companions, keeping working. "Doctor!" she cried.

"Yeah, I know. You're only human."

"What're you doin'?" Liz finally spoke up, tears still in her eyes. She joined the Doctor, Alex and Amy.

"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain; should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly but the Whale won't feel it."

"That'll be like killing it."

"Look, three options! One; I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two; I kill everyone on this ship. Three; I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, 'cos I won't be the Doctor anymore."

"There must be somethin' we can do, some other way,"

"Nobody talk to me. Nobody HUMAN! HAS ANYTHING TO SAY TO ME TODAY!" the Doctor shouted furiously. Deciding it best to let the Doctor finish his work, Amy and Mandy sloped to the edge of the room and sat down in silence. Liz began pacing anxiously.

"Y'know, I think I preferred you before you changed," Alex said harshly. The Doctor didn't bat an eyelid, continuing his work. Alex took a deep breath, hating himself for what he was about to do. "Can I help?"

The Doctor finally looked up at him, considering. Eventually, he broke. He gestured to a group of dials on the controls. "Set all of those dials to two, then connect this wire to that port," he told him, handing him the thick rubber wire.

Alex did as he was asked. "I'm sorry," he told the Doctor. The Doctor simply nodded. Alex connected the wire and glanced up at Amy. She was looking across at Mandy who was playing with a short, curly-haired boy and the root that the Doctor had released. Alex frowned slightly, before remembering Hawthorne's words – It won't eat the children. "Anything else?"

"Ramp that up to 750," the Doctor said, pointing at another dial. Alex noticed that 750 was the highest the dial would go. Realising what this would do, he closed his eyes and turned it, not able to watch himself.

"Done," he whispered.

"Okay. I think we're good to go." He pressed a couple of button and turned one more dial.

"Doctor, stop." Amy said from her corner. She ran over to the control panel. "Whatever you're doing, stop it now!"

"Amy?" Alex asked. The Doctor ignored her, continuing to apply the finishing touches.

"Sorry your Majesty!" Amy said, grabbing Liz's hand and pulling her towards the monitor in the corner of the room. "Going to need a hand!"

"AMY, NO! NO!" the Doctor cried, chasing after Amy. Too late. Using Liz's own hand, Amy pushed the Abdicate button in front of the monitor.

The buzzing of electricity stopped. There were a couple of bangs. The Whale's moaning increased, before the entire room shook. Not for the first time since meeting the Doctor, Alex was thrown ruthlessly to the ground. Dust cascaded from the ceiling as the banging and shaking intensified, and shelves and cabinets in the room collapsed. Sparks flew from the control panel. The Whale screamed out, relishing in its freedom at long last, evidently shaking itself loose.

"Amy, what have you done?" the Doctor asked in distress as the bombardment subsided, also picking himself up from the floor.

"Nothing at all. Am I right?" she asked Hawthorne, who turned to the monitors as they reactivated.

"We've increased speed!" he cried in surprise.

"Yeah well, you've stopped torturing the pilot, gotta help!" Amy grinned cheekily.

"It's still here!" Liz said, looking at the pink mass of brain, still visible down the pipe. "I don't understand."

"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago," Amy explained. "It volunteered! You didn't have to trap it, or torture it! That was all just you! It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old. And really kind, and alone. Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind. And the very, very last of your kind."

Amy turned to look at the Doctor. Alex too glanced at him, a strange feeling in his chest. He realised it was pride. How odd.

"What couldn't you do then?" Amy went on. "You couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

The Doctor stood for a minute, looking at the floor. Then, he spun on his heel and strode out of the large wooden door. Frowning, Amy started to follow.

"Amy," Alex stopped her. "I'll go after him." He smiled reassuringly and turned to follow the Doctor out of the door which a Winder/Smiler was holding open for him. "Oh, and..." he said, turning back to Amy. She looked at him expectantly. "Nice work!" Alex grinned, holding out a hand. Amy chuckled and high-fived him.

T H E B E A S T B E L O W

Bloody Starship UK. It was like a maze. Alex quickly lost the Doctor, unable to see him through the masses of people milling around, clearing up. Market stalls had collapsed all over the place, the sellers' wares rolling around. Predictably, some were taking advantage of this and looting. Some Smiler booths, Alex was smugly pleased to see, were also damaged. After ten minutes of searching, Alex gave up, deciding he might as well wait in the TARDIS. He'd have to go back there eventually. Amy would have the sense to go there too, he was sure of it. Besides, he was in desperate need of a change of clothes...

Eventually, Alex found the TARDIS where the Doctor had landed it, completely un-damaged. Alex went inside, momentarily confused. He still wasn't used to the change in design. Remembering where the wardrobe was now, he ascended the staircase to his right...

And arrived back in the Console Room a few minutes later. He'd thrown his old clothes in an incinerator he'd found strangely placed in the wardrobe... Strange thing to have in there. But then, Alex reminded himself, the Doctor was a very strange man. In any case, his clothes weren't exactly saveable. They'd probably still smell after about a thousand washes. Suddenly, Alex heard a phone ringing. He looked around for the source of the ringing and realised it was coming from the console itself. Unexpectedly, the door to the TARDIS flew open and the Doctor walked in, followed by Amy. The Doctor looked much cheerier, jumping up the stairs to the Console level.

"People phone you?" Amy asked him, closing the door.

"Well, it's a phone box. Would you mind?" he gestured to the phone for Amy to answer it.

"You've perked up," Alex told him, smiling.

The Doctor jumped. "Blimey, didn't see you there. Where'd you get to?"

"I could ask you the same."

"Just went for a walk. Oh good, you've changed." The Doctor pulled up a lever as Amy answered the phone. Alex and the Doctor watched her, both smiling slightly.

"Hello?" A pause. "Sorry who? No, seriously, who?" She put the phone to her chest and turned to the Doctor. "Says he's the Prime Minister. First the queen, now the Prime Minister! Get about, don't you?"

"Again. Tip of the iceberg,"

"Which Prime Minister?"

Amy put the phone back to her ear. "W-which Prime Minister?" She stuttered. She received an answer and covered the mouth piece again. "The British one!"

"Yeah, which British one?"

"Which British one?" back into the phone. The next answer shocked her, going by her facial expression. Slowly, she took the phone from her ear and passed it to the Doctor. "Winston Churchill for you."

The Doctor grinned and seized the phone from Amy. "Oh hello dear, what's up?" he said into it happily. "Don't worry about a thing Prime Minister," he answered after a moment or two. "We're on our way!"

The Doctor hung up the phone and set the TARDIS to dematerialize, leaving Starship UK behind.


	11. Meanwhile: Two

_Completely forgot to insert this in my last part in my haste to get it uploaded. I'm dedicating this rewrite to Nicholas Courtney who died on the 22__nd__ February 2011. Making his first appearance as the Brigadier in 1968, he became a trusted companion to the Doctor until his final appearance as the Brig in The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008. RIP Nicholas._

_Obviously a short chapter, due to it being a Meanwhile in the TARDIS. Next episode will be one entirely of my own writing, covering Alex's back story and how he met the Doctor. Then it'll be full-steam ahead with The Time of Angels!_

Meanwhile in the TARDIS 2

The TARDIS tumbled through the Vortex, on its way to 1940, as the Doctor piloted it.

"You know Winston Churchill?" Amy cried out in glee. The Doctor simply nodded smugly. "Anyone else I should know about?"

"We met Agatha Christie once," Alex said. "And he's told me about the time he met Shakespeare."

"_Shakespeare_?"

"Doctor, probably best if I sit this one out?" Alex asked. "Drop me home for a bit?"

"Hm, why? Oh. Yeah, I forgot about that." The Doctor altered the controls, heading instead for Alex's home. He typed on the typewriter, pulled a lever and reset another.

"About what?"

"I've met Churchill before too," Alex explained. "I was sort of... possessed by this thing. I don't even know what it was?" he asked the Doctor.

"Call it a demon. Anyway, this demon tried to use Alex to, in a nutshell, destroy the world."

"Right..." Amy raised her eyebrows.

"Ol' Winny didn't really understand the whole possession thing," Alex took over again. "He just thought I was a crazy megalomaniac, bent on destroying the world. The Doctor got the demon out of my body, but Churchill didn't buy it."

"When we left, I just told Winston I was taking Alex to Stormcage. Easier than trying to explain it."

"And Stormcage is..?"

"Intergalactic prison. We'll be there in a few minutes," the Doctor told Alex, who nodded. Amy stood in silent thought for a moment or two.

"You got any clothes I can change into?" Amy eventually asked, realising she was still dressed in her vomit-drenched nightie.

"Probably some in the wardrobe," the Doctor said. "Alex can you..?"

"Yeah, no problem," Alex motioned for Amy to follow him up the staircase to the right of the door. He led Amy down a long corridor with strange and varied doors lining each wall. Eventually, they reached one which said, helpfully, 'Wardrobe' above the door. Alex pushed it open and stood aside to let Amy enter. Amy gasped as she did so.

"Talk about walk-in wardrobe," she breathed. Alex smiled.

For as far as the eye could see, there were rows, columns and lines of clothes on hangers, all from different time periods. Zones of Elizabethan, districts of Victorian, sectors of prehistoric, regions of futuristic, and everything in between. There were also modern (to Alex and Amy at least) clothes which were, thankfully, nearby.

"I think I saw some girl's clothes earlier..." Alex said, walking off to the left in search of what he remembered. They passed a row of clothes, separate to everything else. "They're mine," he said, gesturing to it. "Ah, here we are!"

They arrived at a new rail of clothing. Along it were all sorts of clothes; elegant dresses, casual baggy jumpers, pyjamas and everything else. On the bench below were a vast array of shoes, also ranging in size, shape, style and formality.

"Wow," Amy breathed again, like a child in a sweet shop.

Alex smiled at her pleasure. He pointed further to their left. "Changing rooms are there,"

Amy thanked him. She quickly picked out some clothing and carried the bundle into one of the booths.

"I never thought to ask," Amy said from behind the curtain. "What time're you from? Never had to ask that before..."

"I know what you mean. Whole new language when you time travel. The Doctor first picked me up in 2008. For me, it's 2010 now. I'm twenty-four. What about you?"

"When we first met, it was 1996. I was seven. Then when you came back, 2008. I was nineteen. Now, 2010, I'm twenty-one. So we're from the same time!"

"Well that's lucky," Alex smiled. "Blimey. Did a woman actually just tell me her age? That's rare,"

"Not for young people," Amy giggled. "The Doctor said you had a little sister?"

"Yeah. Karen. She's eight," Alex thought of her fondly. "You got any brothers or sisters?"

"Nah. Just me and Aunt Sharon," Suddenly, the whole room juddered. "What the hell was that?" Amy cried, evidently knocked off balance.

"Probably just landed," Alex chuckled, having been thrown slightly against the wall. The shaking subsided almost instantaneously. Eventually, Amy emerged. She had put on a red tank top with a black undershirt. On her legs she wore a light-blue denim miniskirt and fairly high black boots on her feet. She finished off the effect with a short-sleeved brown leathery jacket. She looked questioningly at Alex as she stepped out. He raised his eyebrows and exhaled. "Wow," he managed.

"Shut up," she laughed, punching him on the arm friendlily. Alex smiled again and gestured for her to follow him back to the console room.

"You'll want to remember your way there," he told her as they went. "When you travel with the Doctor, you usually need to change your clothes on a regular basis."

"Ah, you two," the Doctor said happily as Alex and Amy arrived back in the Console Room. "Good. Right, we've landed,"

"Great," Alex smiled, heading towards the door. "When'll you be back for me? I assume you're coming back?" he added, cheekily.

"If you're lucky. Few hours? Not sure really. If we survive, of course,"

"What?" Amy asked nervously.

"Ignore him. Right, few hours. I'll be expecting you, y'know."

"Oh I know," the Doctor smiled.

"Right-o. Enjoy. See you later," Alex said.

The Doctor and Amy said their goodbyes and Alex stepped out of the TARDIS and found himself in the bedroom of his flat. It was a simple room, with a double bed, a wardrobe, a desk, a chest of drawers, a radiator, a television and not much else. Alex turned back to watch the TARDIS as it dematerialised. He smiled sadly, remembering the first time he ever laid eyes on the Doctor and his magical machine...


	12. First Contact: One

_While Alex recalls these events, the Doctor and Amy are off to WWII as usual, so the iDaleks have still been created :)_

_So now we zoom back in time to 2008, to a time before Alex met the Doctor. How and why did Alex meet him? Under what circumstances? We're also going to find out Alex's back story and meet his family. Another shorter story, as some things will be explained later in the series. We also meet two recurring characters, Karen and Daisy. Now, on with episode three – First Contact!_

_And yes. I did make up the science in this. Don't judge me :)_

First Contact – Part One

"I don't know Gran. Someone who isn't me," Alex spoke on the phone, shoving some toast into a toaster.

"But you were the best candidate for that job!" Gran said, indignantly.

"You would say that, you're my gran."

"You have a _degree_ though!"

"Yeah, and he had a Masters! It's fine, I didn't really want to work there anyway."

Gran sighed. "Alright then. Well, make sure you keep an eye out for something. Your parents didn't pay you through University for you to be unemployed at twenty-three." The toast popped up. Chucking it onto a plate and balancing the phone between his head and shoulder, he spread some butter on it.

"I know Gran. I know. You think I want to be unemployed?" Alex asked resentfully. He hated it when his grandmother brought up his parents' wishes. Was it his fault that there was a recession? Mum and dad would understand...

"I'm sorry," she said. "Are you coming to visit their graves this afternoon?"

"Of course I am. I asked _you_ to come!"

Saying his goodbyes, he hung up the phone carried his toast into the living room. The money his parents had left him was enough to rent him a relatively decent-sized flat. The kitchen was fairly basic, with a small fridge, a hob, a sink and a washing machine, along with a toaster, kettle and a few storage cabinets. His gran had bought him a small dining table, so he'd have somewhere to eat. The living room was alright, with one two-seater sofa and an armchair, a coffee table and a good-sized, 32-inch LCD TV. The wallpaper was quite old-fashioned, and the carpet was moth-eaten in places, but Alex didn't mind. He actually quite liked it...

Alex's phone vibrated in the kitchen. He popped the last of the toast into his mouth and walked back into the kitchen, sliding the plate into the sink and picking up his phone. He'd got a text from his friend, Eva. It was obviously a group text.

"Heyy guys :) Bonfire night on Saturday! Party at mine, bring a drink and a firework! Swing by mine anytime after 8 :D See you then! Xx"

F I R S T C O N T A C T

Alex and his grandmother strolled down the peaceful pathway, weeping willows lining the path in the shadow of the ancient church, the spire of which reached into the sky high above. Gran had slid her arm through Alex's, whose hands were firmly rooted into his pockets.

"How's Karen?" Alex asked her, referring to his younger sister.

"She's okay. She still doesn't like to come to their graves though. I think they scare her,"

"She never really got over their death. I suppose you're not going to when you're eight."

"No..." Gran smiled sadly. "She misses you, you know. Will you come back with me?"

Alex simply nodded. They had arrived at his parents' graves. The tree that Alex himself had planted between the headstones was growing nicely, though it would be a few months until it blossomed and could be fully appreciated. Looking down, Alex noticed that there were already some flowers placed lovingly on both graves. His parents had had many friends, and had been very popular people. It was coming up to a year since they'd died, and they continued to have many visitors on a regular basis. Gran passed Alex two enormous bunches of flowers and he bent down respectfully. He placed the first one, filled with blue tulips on the grave to the left. He touched the gravestone lovingly, drinking in the words.

"Cass Arthur Morgan. Born 1960. Died 2007, aged 47."

He shifted his gaze to the headstone on the right and placed the pink roses on his mother's grave. He read those words too.

"Fleur Elizabeth Morgan. Born 1961. Died 2007, aged 46."

Alex straightened up, his eyes swimming slightly. His grandmother noticed but was tactful enough to busy herself with sorting the strap on her handbag until Alex had composed himself.

"Right!" she said, sounding suspiciously upbeat. "Let's go back to mine, have a slap-up tea and have a toast in their honour. We'll give Karen a little glass of lemonade," she winked at Alex, who smiled sadly. Taking one last look at the twin graves in front of them, they turned and strolled slowly back to the car, tears silently rolling down both their cheeks.

F I R S T C O N T A C T

Alex entered his grandmother's house behind her, slightly apprehensively. He and Karen hadn't parted last on the best terms. He had tried to get her to realise that their parents were gone and couldn't ever come back. She'd categorically refused to accept it, and run off in tears.

"Go on," Gran whispered, pushing him towards the door to the living room. From within, Alex heard the theme-tune to Karen's favourite television programme. He slowly pushed the door open. Sitting in the armchair was his granddad Paul, who saw him and smiled welcomingly.

"Hi Nanny," Karen said, not looking up from the television.

"Kaz?" Alex asked, nervously. Karen looked up in surprise, realising who it was. They looked into each other's eyes, slightly awkwardly. Slowly, but surely, Karen reached for the television remote and turned it off. She got up from the sofa and ran towards Alex, hugging him around the legs. Alex chuckled as his grandparents looked on proudly. He bent down and pulled Karen into a humungous, tight hug, apologising profusely for what had happened between them.

"That's okay," she said, throwing her arms around his neck and half-strangling him.

"Love you dude," Alex whispered, kissing her forehead.

"Ew!" Karen pushed Alex away cheekily, laughing. Alex straightened up and tousled her hair lovingly.

"Wonderful!" cried Granddad, heaving himself up from the armchair. "Rightyo then. Drinks. Beer, Alex? And are you staying for dinner?"

"Not for me thanks. I'll just have a coke. And yep. Going to stay with my favourite little sister for the evening!" He winked at Karen. Granddad grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, heading into the kitchen to fetch the drinks.

Alex, Karen and their grandparents had a wonderful evening. They had a slap-up roast dinner, talked, watched television and just generally had fun.

"So Alex," said his grandfather from his chair, completely worn out. "What've you got planned for the weekend?"

Alex thought for a moment, before remembering the text he'd received that morning. "My friend Eva's having a party for bonfire night."

"Can I come?" Karen asked.

"No, sorry Kaz," Alex chuckled. "There'll be alcohol there. And it'll be past your bedtime anyway!"

"Speaking of which," said Grandma, glancing at the clock on the mantelpiece, "I think it's time you went up to bed Karen. You've already stayed up half an hour longer because Alex is here."

"I can't go to sleep when he's here!" Karen complained.

"No, it's fine, I'd better be getting off anyway," Alex pulled himself off of the sofa. "Don't worry Kazza. Party'll probably be really boring anyway," he winked lovingly. Karen smiled and hugged his legs again, before turning and running up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Cor, she really loves you, eh?" Granddad laughed.

Alex laughed too, nodding. An idea popped into his head. "Listen, if she's too much for you, she can come and live at mine sometimes. I've got plenty of room. And she'd love it."

"No doubt about that," Grandma said. "But we can manage fine. Not sure you could though. You'd have to miss your party on Saturday for one!"

"I can hardly be bothered anyway. It'll just be the same old stuff. Drunk people, sick, a bit of smoking, crappy food. The only difference'll be the fireworks."

"Hold on. Drunk people and fireworks is a recipe for disaster!" Granddad said.

"Oh don't worry. Eva and Elliot don't drink. They'll be setting off the fireworks. And neither do I, much. You know that."

"Well, like I said. Be careful."

"And like I said. It'll be boring, same-old stuff. Nothing I haven't seen before."

F I R S T C O N T A C T

Saturday rolled around and Alex rolled out of bed. He hadn't got much sleep last night. He looked at the calendar on his wall and realised he had a party to go to tonight. He groaned and got dressed. Excuses circulated his head.

"Karen's been taken ill, I've got to see her!"

"Granddad's been taken ill, I've got to see him!"

"I've been taken ill, don't come and see me!"

"My parents are actually alive, I've got to see them!"

Once again, Alex clumsily buttered some toast and hungrily gobbled it. He switched on the television in the living room and threw himself onto the sofa, deciding to watch the news.

"And finally, what's going on in the atmosphere?" said the newsreader. Images taken by the Hubble Telescope flashed up on screen. They displayed strange, multi-coloured webs, almost, spread across the Earth's upper atmosphere. "Is an alien encounter on the cards? Or does the Hubble Telescope's lens just need a good clean? With me here, I've got Steven Ashley, a Professor at Oxford University and teaches, among other things, now hold on. Multi-state Multi-reference Perturbation Theory! Try saying that when you've had a few. Professor Ashley, good morning."

"Good morning Roger."

"So Professor, what can you tell us about these strange lights in the sky? Are we about to be visited by alien life forms?"

"Unfortunately, it's unlikely Roger," Ashley chuckled. "The most likely cause is simply an over-refraction of the UV rays being omitted by our sun."

"And for those viewers who don't understand such technical jargon, what does that mean?"

"It means the viewers can stop stocking up on provisions! There will be no alien invasion today!"

"Well that's certainly fantastic news-" Roger the newsreader was cut-off as Alex turned off the television. He got to his feet and went into his bedroom to get dressed. It was nearing midday, and he was still to buy a drink and firework for the impending party. Eight hours, he thought. Eight hours to prepare himself...

F I R S T C O N T A C T

Alex pulled into a parking space outside his local Tesco. He got out of the car and entered the shop. He was still shattered. God knows why. After a moment of thinking, he remembered the aisle where the alcohol was stored and headed in that direction. He turned into the aisle at the far end of the shop and saw friends of his; Sam and Daisy and her boyfriend Ollie, also choosing some drinks to take to the party. Looking up, Daisy's eyes met Alex's, like they had so many times before. Alex smiled sadly and withdrew back around the corner before Sam and Ollie could notice him.

"I'll get the firework first," Alex said to himself out loud.

"Someone would think you don't like me," said a familiar voice behind him. Alex turned on the spot to be met with Daisy. Daisy had long, brown wavy hair, with blue eyes on one of the most beautiful faces Alex had ever seen. Once upon a time, he and Daisy were engaged. Not anymore. Now she was with that Ollie. Mouthy git. He supposed he couldn't complain, they'd agreed to end it.

"It's not you I don't like," Alex told her.

"I know," she smiled sadly.

"Where _is_ Ollie Wollie?"

"Still choosing drinks with Sam. Said I needed the toilet." Alex just nodded. "You going tonight then?" He nodded again. She tried a new tact "Bringing anyone?"

"No," Alex snorted derisively.

"Come on, Alex. I need us to get on," Daisy begged. "Please."

"You alright Dais?" said Ollie, coming round the corner. "Oh. Hi Alex, mate. How're you?"

"Yeah, fine. See you tonight Daisy," Alex hurried away from a confused Ollie and a saddened Daisy.

"Alex?" said Sam as Alex rushed round the corner. Alex didn't respond. He seized a bottle of drink at random and headed towards the fireworks stall towards the back of the shop.

"How can I help you sir?" the man behind the desk said as Alex arrived at it.

"Not sure. What d'you recommend?"

The man opened his mouth to speak when another person ran up to the desk, interrupting. He wore a blue, slim-fit suit with a tan brown trench coat over the top. On his feet were some maroon-red Converse trainers.

"I would really recommend The Big One," the man said to Alex, a large grin on his face.

"Er- sorry? What?"

"Buy The Big One. Fantastic firework. A big _bang_, if you know what I mean,"

Alex, still rather shocked at the sudden outburst from the man, glanced behind the desk and saw a stack of Big Ones. "They're twenty quid!"

"I would _really_ recommend it," the man repeated. Alex just stared at the man, confused. "Tell you what," he said, taking out a twenty pound note from his inside suit-pocket. "I'll buy it for you." He turned to the man behind the desk. "One Big One please!"

"Hold on, I can buy my own firework!"

"Well you don't want to buy The Big One! And I _really_ recommend it," he said again. Alex rolled his eyes and let the man buy the firework. "Thank you very much," the man said as he received the firework. "Here," he said, passing it to Alex. "Use it well." The man winked at Alex and walked away. Alex just stared after him.


	13. First Contact: Two

_Well it seems this story, and Alex in particular, is a hit! :) Thanks for all of your kind reviews; they really motivate me to keep going. So keep reviewing, they're very much appreciated!_

_Credit to my friend for helping me with the Alex/Daisy scene. Next time I write an original story, it'll be more alien-based. Write what you know! ;) _

_One more part after this. And there'll be more Doctor in it! So, it'll probably be fairly fast. And then it'll be full steam ahead with The Time of Angels._

First Contact – Part Two

Alex stowed The Big One and his bottle into a black shoulder bag. It was five to eight.

"Okay," he said to himself, looking in his bedroom mirror. "Let's do this. You don't have to stay long. Just make an appearance." He took a deep breath and picked up the shoulder bag and turned off the television. He walked towards his front door, where he noticed a small white postcard on the doormat, perfectly contrasted to the black mat. Alex picked it up, slightly confused. There were just four words on it, scrawled in black pen.

"'Stick around until eleven...'" Alex read, frowning. He didn't recognise the writing. Who would've posted this? There wasn't an address or a stamp, so it had been posted through his door personally... Shrugging, he tucked it into his bag, deciding to question it later. He was already running late. He opened the door and jogged down the stairs of the apartment block. He pushed the glass door open at the bottom and strolled out into the cold, dark night. He glanced at the sky as he walked towards his car, and stopped in his tracks. What looked like blue-ish smoke was streaked across the sky, not dissimilar to the Northern Lights, just smaller. He remembered the mysterious news story that morning. Smiling in awe, he unlocked his car and got inside. He'd already decided to drive, to give him an excuse not to drink.

As he pulled up outside Eva's house, Alex could tell the party was already in full swing. He could hear the music dully pounding inside, and flashing lights behind the curtains in the front room. There were just two other cars parked outside the house – obviously everyone else was planning on drinking. A lot. He sighed in apprehension and got out of the car.

"Alex!" shouted a voice happily as he stepped through the unlocked front door. Alex adopted a look that might look as if he really wanted to be there and returned the hug Eva gave him when she reached him. "Thanks for coming!"

"Wouldn't miss it," Alex smiled back, not entirely truthfully.

"Can I get you a drink? Oh, you brought your own, didn't you? Daisy said she saw you this morning." Eva liked to talk.

"Well, I did yeah. But I'm driving, so I won't drink,"

"Then why'd you bring a drink?" she laughed, as she led him outside. Alex just shrugged, and he walked with her to the large bonfire towards the end of the garden. The bonfire was impressive, the heat of it burning Alex's face from a fair distance. Its flames licked higher and higher as more fuel was placed onto it – old, rotting wood.

"Hey man," said Eva's boyfriend Elliot, as he threw a log onto the fire. Alex smiled legitimately and nodded a greeting. He liked Elliot. For one, Elliot didn't really drink either, so he tended to be a constant companion at booze-ups like this one, usually helping Alex comfort those who burst into tears, or else helping to clear up the putrid vomit from the carpet.

"Ell, stop putting wood on! It's big enough as it is!" Eva cried. Elliot rolled his eyes and dumped a piece back onto the muddy floor.

"Eva!" shouted a female voice from the house. They all turned to the house and heard Eva's favourite song boom through the now open windows. She grinned and went back to the house at a surprisingly high speed for someone in high heels.

"So," Elliot said, now putting the piece of wood he'd dropped onto the fire. "How're you?"

Alex shrugged. "Oh, y'know. Same old. Can't really be bothered tonight,"

"Me neither," Elliot agreed. "At least Eva isn't drinking either. She promised her parents. We'll have a bit of help when everything goes to pot."

"True," Alex laughed, noting Elliot's use of 'when' over 'if'. He took off his bag and tossed it to the ground so that it landed against the garden fence. "You build this then?" he asked, referring to the bonfire.

"Yep," he replied proudly. "Took about an hour to get it properly going..." They both stared into the flames, entranced by the dancing beams of orange. "Come on," Elliot said eventually. "We'd better show our faces."

"If we have to," Alex groaned inwardly and followed Elliot towards the house, leaving his bag by the fire. Looking up at the sky, Alex noticed that the blue smoke seemed to have increased in mass. He looked at his watch. 8:20. He'd already decided to "stick around until eleven". He didn't even know why...

F I R S T C O N T A C T

As time went on, things got more and more out of hand, and did so very quickly. It was a Saturday. The general consensus seemed to be that they could use the next day to recover before back to business as usual on Monday. As the time approached ten, it became pretty obvious that people had brought more than 'a drink' with them. Periodically, people disappeared to the off-licence down the road, before returning, arms laden with bottles.

"Oi, Dais! Come dance luv," Ollie shouted obnoxiously, groping her slightly. She pushed him away with, Alex was pleased to see, a disgusted look at Ollie. Alex sloped away into the hall and noticed Elliot in the bathroom, pouring a browney, lumpy mixture into the toilet out of a bowl, also looking disgusted.

"Who's first then?" Alex asked, smiling.

"Rob," Elliot grimaced, passing Alex the now empty bowl. "Can you wash that in the sink? I have to get back to him,"

Alex took it, holding it at arm's length like it was about to explode. "Yeah, no problem. Call me if you need me."

As Elliot began jogging up the stairs, Alex called out to him. 'Hey, Ell!' Elliot paused and looked back, just in time to catch the air freshener Alex had thrown to him. He looked at it and smiled.

"Cheers,"

With a grimace, Alex placed the bowl in the sink and turned the tap on, letting the water cascade into it. He picked up the soap and squeezed some into the bowl too.

"Hey," Daisy said, coming into the kitchen and leaning against a counter next to Alex.

"Alright '_Dais'_?" he replied, slightly mockingly. He smiled at her, nevertheless.

She smiled sadly and shook her head. "He's a bit of an idiot, isn't he? Ollie, I mean."

Alex paused, his hands on the bowl. She had never said anything like that about Ollie before. Was love's young dream possibly not all it seemed? He glanced up at her. "You want the truth?"

"Alex," she stared at him. "Don't. Look, he may be an idiot sometimes but we're still together, so just don't get any ideas. Okay?"

"What ideas? I didn't have any ideas," He looked back down into the bowl, almost full with clean, hot water. Neither spoke for a moment but then Alex looked back at her. "Where did it all go wrong for us, eh?" Alex asked after a moment.

Daisy just shrugged. It was her turn to avert her eyes. "Wish I knew," she whispered, staring at the kitchen floor.

Feeling slightly reckless, Alex turned off the tap, dried his hands then pulled Daisy into a tight hug, relishing the embrace with the one person he had truly loved. Eyes closed, he smiled as, after a moment's hesitation, she gave in, wrapping her arms around him.

"We'll be okay, yeah? With or without Ollie Wollie," smiled Alex, breathing in the familiar smell of the Lavender & Eucalyptus shampoo Daisy always used.

She looked up at him and Alex was struck by those eyes; those beautiful, deep pools of ocean blue that bore into his heart every time she looked at him. He closed his eyes. His heart was aching for her but she was with someone else. He gently laid his forehead on hers, breathing slowly.

"Alex," she breathed. He opened his eyes again. Subconsciously, his hands had wandered into her hair and were caressing it lovingly. Caressing it the way he used to.

"Sorry," he murmured, transfixed by what he was doing, the memories it was bringing back.

"You're not moving them,' Daisy told him, barely a whisper.

"Do you want me to?"

"No,"

Daisy pulled away slightly and tilted her head to look at him again. She leaned in closer. Alex's stomach dropped. He had seen that expression a thousand times. Her parted lips drew closer to his, tears in her eyes. He began to lean in himself.

"Fireworks time everyone!" called Eva as she bounded downstairs and into the kitchen. She had her back to Alex and Daisy as she entered the room, giving them a chance to pull apart and act normal. Daisy grabbed some kitchen roll and dabbed at her eyes, before following Eva outside, not looking back.

F I R S T C O N T A C T

The fireworks were, predictably, fairly unimpressive. From time to time, there would be a gem in the mud, but it seemed that most people had skimped, buying the cheapest firework they could in order to conserve the maximum amount of money possible to buy drink with. Alex and Elliot stood to one side of the garden, watching Eva light a firework a few metres away. With the exception of Daisy, who was helping Ollie stay on his feet, everyone was far too drunk to even attempt to light one. Alex, Eva and Elliot were taking turns to do so.

"Where's yours then?" Elliot asked as the fuse was successfully lit and raced towards the rocket.

Alex pictured The Big One in his mind, and the strange man that had purchased it for him. "No idea," he replied. "Can't remember where I left my bag." Their faces were illuminated momentarily with a dull red light as the firework feebly lit up as it exploded, emitting a slight _pop! _The strange blue-light effect in the sky greatly overshadowed the pathetic excuses for fireworks. Eva came to stand with Alex, pushing Elliot towards the firework pile, who picked one at random and prepared it for launch.

"You okay?" Eva asked, smiling.

Alex simply nodded, before realising she couldn't see his nod in the dark. "Yeah, I'm great," he elaborated, slightly overenthusiastically. He looked at his watch, tilting it to read it in the light of the bonfire. 10:57. "I might be off in a mo' though. Up early tomorrow," he told Eva apologetically.

"Ah, no problem!" she said, pulling him into a friendly hug. "Thanks for coming! Do one thing for me though,"

"What's that?" Alex asked as Elliot rejoined them.

"She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the firework pile. "Light one more!"

Laughing, Alex picked one from the pile at random and crouched down to light the firework in the lighting area. He struck a match and held it to the fuse.

"Stop!" came a voice from the house.

Those who were sober enough to hear the voice looked in that direction to see a man sprinting down the garden. He was wearing a familiar slim-fit blue suit, familiar maroon Converse trainers, and had familiar stylishly-quiffed brown hair. Alex stood back as the firework leapt into the air at great speed. It appeared to be a fairly decent one.

"I told you to stop!" the man cried as he reached Alex, looking up as the firework exploded far above, sending sparks of red and gold raining down.

"What're you doing here?" Alex asked him in surprise. "How did you know I'd be here? Did Ollie tell you? Was it Daisy?"

"Who?" the man asked, confused.

"Why have you followed me here?" Alex all but shouted. This was a bit creepy.

"I didn't follow you! I've never seen you before!"

"You bought me a firework _this morning_!"

"No I didn't!"

"Excuse me," Eva poked her head into the rather heated conversation. "What're you doing in my garden?"

The man turned to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I'm saving you, and your friends, and your planet. Now, first things first, don't light any more fireworks. Go and stand back over there, there's a good girl,"

"Hold on, don't talk to me like that," Eva told him indignantly. "Who d'you think you are?"

"I think I'm the Doctor. That's my name. Now go and stand over there where it's safe."

Eva stared at him for a second before running back to Elliot, who put his arms around her and looked at her questioningly.

"Why's over there safe and here isn't?" Alex asked.

The Doctor didn't reply at first, busy looking up into the sky. He'd seen something that shocked him. "Because this is the crash spot." He seized Alex by the upper arm and threw him towards the group of people, before leaping away from the spot himself.

Alex got up angrily, annoyed at being pushed into the dirt by the stranger with no real name. He turned to the Doctor who was still on the ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked heatedly. A few of the drunks behind him guffawed while others whispered to one another.

The Doctor was still looking into the sky. "Get down!" he shouted, turning to the group. Alex just stared at him, confused, until he heard a noise coming from the sky. He glanced upwards and was thrown from his feet once more.

Chaos reigned. Everyone was on the floor, legs and arms tangled with each other. Some were whimpering at landing on the hard ground awkwardly, while others were being helped to their feet by friend. Whatever had happened, it seemed to have helped people to sober up, fast. Dust and dirt filled the air, obscuring everybody's view. Alex was closest to the cause, with the exception of the Doctor and, pulling himself to his feet, advanced slightly. He had been temporarily deafened, so had to look extra carefully where he was going. Fortunately, impossibly, the bonfire had kept burning, lighting his way slightly. Eventually, he reached the Doctor's side, who was staring at the thing in horror. The dust settled and Alex gained his first look at the cause of the pandemonium.

Lying in what appeared to be a slight crater in the ground was a ball. A giant, silver, metal ball. It had a criss-cross design on it and on the front, what appeared to be a door for a rather short person. Judging by the crater, it had evidently fallen out of the sky from a _very_ great distance. The Doctor continued to stare in terror.

"What's that?" Alex whispered, also staring.

"Dangerous. Get everyone inside. Now."

"What is it?"

"_Inside_!" the Doctor repeated. His tone was so authoritative that Alex didn't try to argue.

He turned to the group. "Okay, everyone. I think we should back up, maybe get back inside. This could be dangerous,"

"What is it?" called a voice. It seemed to come from Paul Jones, a stupidly mouthy friend of Ollie's. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Doesn't matter, just get back."

"I wanna see what it is though," Paul said, quite idiotically.

Paul got his wish. Almost ceremoniously, the door to the sphere began to move. White gas issued from around the door as it moved forward and to the right, revealing what lay within. The gas gave the thing cover, but there was definite movement inside.

"Get back!" the Doctor repeated to the people in anguish.

"Human half-forms," said a gravelly voice from inside the ball. "This is too easy." The source of the voice emerged from the pod. It looked like a man, but it certainly wasn't one. The thing stepped forward onto the grass, its form illuminated creepily by the bonfire. Although it was really very short, around four foot high, it was surprisingly menacing-looking. It wore what seemed to be blue armour, covering its entire body, apart from its head. There were different plates for each major muscle area – biceps, deltoids, pectorals, abdominals, quadriceps. There was a darker-blue ring around where the neck of a normal person would be, except that the thing had no neck. A domed head poked out of the top of the armour with an angry face on it. The head was not dissimilar to a talking baked potato. Now, people were backing away happily.

"All will stay exactly where they are," the alien told the group venomously. People glanced at each other, unsure how to react.

"Do what he says," the Doctor told them. So much for get back, thought Alex.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noticed Elliot, whispering in Eva's ear. Was now really the time? He noticed Eva was crying. They hugged tightly, lovingly.

The alien noticed the Doctor. "Ah, a mature human male. Why are you to be found among the half-forms?"

"Ah, but I'm not a human. You got scanning equipment? Scan me."

The alien glared at the Doctor for a moment, before touched a couple of buttons on a machine on his wrist and holding it towards the Doctor. He glanced up. Alex followed his line of vision and saw Eva creeping back towards the house through the shadows. Swift as a flash, the alien drew a bulky blue ray gun, aimed it and, grinning maliciously, fired a red laser towards Eva.


	14. First Contact: Three

_Obviously there's not much alien stuff in this story. It's primarily about Alex's back story and establishing his meeting and relationship with the Doctor. The next original story will be more Doctor Who-ish :) And I've suddenly realised that the Doctor putting things through companions' front doors in a rather Wibbly-Wobbly fashion is what happened in The Big Bang. I thought up that point before I remembered the similarity, promise!_

_Another Meanwhile in the TARDIS coming your way, before we move onto The Time of Angels!_

First Contact – Part Three

Shrill screams of horror erupted. At the last second, Elliot had thrown himself in front of Eva, taking the laser for her, which hit him square in the chest. Tears streamed down Eva's face as she knelt beside Elliot's lifeless body, lying on the grass. The light of the bonfire reflected eerily in his eyes, still wide open, a ghost of his last heroic act for the woman he loved. Alex was knocked off kilter in shock, stumbling backwards to lean on the wooden garden fence, shaking.

"Brave work, for a human," said the alien triumphantly, nodding. "He would have made a good Sontaran."

"He was defenceless!" the Doctor shouted at the Sontaran, incensed. "You give them a chance! You always give them a chance! Even you lot, after everything your race has done, I _still_ give you a _chance_!"

"You know of our race then?" asked the Sontaran, interested. "What do you know?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor whispered to the alien, walking towards it menacingly. "I know the Sontarans. And I know of your pathetic little war. A 50,000-year war, raging across the cosmos, with countless innocent races caught in the crossfire."

"But not for much longer! The Rutans are weaker than they have been for millennia! We are close to our glorious victory!"

"Oh stop it. You've both been saying that for 20,000 years. And you'd think that after 50,000 years of _death_, and _killing_, you might have a _shred_ of pity, a _shred_ of mercy, a _shred_ of respect for innocent life. But that would be too kind for the _glorious_ Sontarans, wouldn't it? So... trigger-happy."

"Time Lord!" the Sontaran cried suddenly, its raspy voice filling the silent air as the people in the garden cried silently, some rocking back and forth in shock. The machine on the Sontaran's wrist had beeped. The scan was complete. It smiled a revolting smile. "But this is marvellous. You talk to me of mercy, and respect for life. The man who carries death and destruction with him, like a plague. The man who disintegrated his entire race in one second. You talk to me. You are worse than the entire Sontaran race, Doctor." The Sontaran drew his gun once more. "I will rid the universe of your presence, once and for all."

People were whimpering all around Alex. The Doctor was staring down the barrel of the Sontaran's laser gun in... not quite fear, but something. Eva was lain over Elliot's lifeless corpse in fits of tears. Other couples were holding each other tightly, whether for comfort, warmth or security, Alex wasn't sure. He looked across the crowd to see Daisy, her arms firmly wrapped around Ollie. Alex suddenly realised. Every single person in the garden was with someone; only he and the Doctor stood alone.

"Why are you even here?" the Doctor asked the Sontaran, most likely stalling for time. "You shouldn't be here,"

"Reconnaissance." It said simply. "A good armed force always investigates their targets."

"Targets?" the Doctor asked. Did that mean an impending invasion? Alex thought. He looked at the sky. The blue light effect had disappeared, he realised, since the Sontaran had crashed. Weakly, Alex sank to his feet. However, instead of coming to rest on the grass, he'd sat on something thoroughly uncomfortable.

"A soldier would be unwise to reveal future stratagems to an enemy."

Alex reached down and pulled the thing out from underneath him. He realised it was his bag that he'd lost. He suddenly remembered throwing it against the fence earlier that night, while talking to Elliot. Elliot...

"You crashed here though. Why did you crash?"

Alex wiped his eye, smoke from the nearby bonfire nearly making him choke. He looked at the fire, still burning a few feet behind where the thing called the Sontaran stood, cocked gun still aimed at the Doctor.

"Mere Rutan sabotage."

Alex was struck by something. Inspiration was a slightly wrong word. Grief? Rage? Despair? He didn't know. He surreptitiously crept his hand into the bag, reaching for The Big One. His hand knocked the bottle of alcohol he'd put in there earlier too. Even better.

"Let me take you back to Sontar," the Doctor tried, slightly desperately. "I can help you. I can take you and your ship back to Sontar. No-one else needs to die tonight."

Alex pulled the cap off of the bottle and poured some of the liquid onto the bottle. The _flammable_ liquid.

"That solution would be inadvisable, Doctor. The last of the Time Lords will meet his end at _my_ hand and _my_ gun." The Sontaran licked his lips repulsively, relishing the moment. His finger squeezed on the trigger slightly.

"Oi. Mr. Potato Head," Alex called to the Sontaran, firework in hand. He turned to look at Alex, distracted. "You look like you could do with a cooking." Alex violently launched the firework from his hand in the direction of the bonfire. The flammable alcohol coated on the firework ignited as it came into contact with the hot, burning fire. The flames caught hold as the rocket began to crack. The firework erupted. A blistering inferno erupted as a ball of fire released unmitigated amounts of energy. More shrill screams sounded, almost out-doing the sound of the explosion. Alex and the Doctor hit the ground, an incredible burning heat rushing safely over their heads. The Sontaran was afforded no such luxury. The blaze rushed into him and struck him full-force, knocking him clean off his feet, scolding his furious face. The Sontaran landed violently on the hard ground, his gun knocked out of his hand. He seemed to have been knocked out. When the furore had subsided, the Doctor leapt to his feet and kicked the laser gun away from the Sontaran's hand, just in case.

"I did that," Alex whispered, shocked by his actions. He glanced around and saw the scold marks on the ground. A few plants were on fire. The grass around the bonfire was completely gone. The bonfire was also beginning to simply glow, having burnt itself out. Black scorch marks coated the Sontaran's pod.

"Yes you did," the Doctor told him, running over to Alex and helping him to his feet. "And you just saved my life. Thank you." The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder. "You did well, yeah?" he asked Alex, who was still looking distressed at his actions. Eventually, he broke into a smile.

"Yeah," Alex took a deep breath and walked over to the Sontaran. "What should we do with him?"

"Oh I've got some friends who can sort things out. You got a mobile?" Alex took out his phone and passed it to the Doctor, who typed in a number. "How do I put it to speaker?" Alex took the phone and showed him.

"This is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. How may I help you this evening?" said a female voice on the phone. It sounded like a call centre.

"Listen, it's the Doctor. It's me. Put me through to someone."

Silence, followed by a click and a dialling tone. Eventually, a new voice came onto the line. "Doctor?" A mature male voice this time.

"Yeah, it's me."

"An honour to talk to you sir. General Tobias Cork Sir."

"'Ello Toby. Got a job for you if you're up for it. Clean up operation."

"What manner of clean up sir?"

"Sontaran warrior plus pod. Still alive, I think. Unarmed. Sontarans should be on record."

There was a sound of typing from the other end of the line. Eventually, Cork returned. "Yes sir. I've got the file here sir. Sontarans, a clone race, originating from the planet Sontar in the Mutter's Spiral-"

"Yeah, I know, I've been there. I just need you to get rid of it, can you do that?"

"Absolutely sir. Where might we find the Sontaran?"

"Back garden of the- hold on," he turned to Alex. "What's the address of this place?"

"24 Middleton Crescent," he replied immediately.

The Doctor smiled slightly at his readiness. "24 Middleton Crescent," he repeated into the phone. "Found it? Yeah. Just send the regional squad. Soon as pos'. Thanks." Without waiting for a response, the Doctor hung up and passed the phone back to Alex. "Thanks."

"Who was that?"

"UNIT. The Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Basically an army unit who deal with aliens- what're you doing?" The Doctor noticed that the Sontaran's gun which he'd kicked away had been picked up by someone.

"We need to kill it," Ollie said angrily, waving the gun around in his hand. He pointed it at the Sontaran lying on the ground, aiming.

"No we don't. It's unconscious, and I've dealt with it."

"It's going to invade!"

"Ollie. It's unconscious," Alex pointed out. "And there's only one of them. Let him deal with it."

"Who the hell are you anyway?"

"I'm the Doctor. I've just saved your life. Don't ruin it by taking someone else's."

"That thing killed Elliot!"

"And what makes you better if you kill it?" the Doctor asked him, glaring. Ollie faltered. "Now, put the gun down."

"But I-"

"_Put_. The gun. Down," The Doctor overrode him. Ollie held his gaze for a few seconds. Eventually, he lowered the gun, holding it limply.

The Doctor turned his back on him and walked away. Alex followed him, listening as he spoke. "So. How d'you like fighting aliens?"

"Sorry?" Alex asked, slightly surprised.

"Good feeling, isn't it? Saving lives." Alex nodded slowly, mouth open slightly in surprise. "Oh yeah. What were you saying earlier? I brought your firework?"

Alex found his voice. "Yeah. I got this as well." He picked his bag up again and took the note out from it which had told him to stay until 11:00. He handed it to the Doctor. "I wasn't going to stay until then. I wanted to leave early. But that came through my door earlier, and I decided I _would_ stay until eleven. I don't even know why. Was that you too?"

"No. Well, yes. Sort of. It's definitely my handwriting. But I haven't written it yet." He shrugged. "I'll do it later."

"Eh?"

"For Sontar!" a familiar coarse voice cried. Frightened screams reverberated around once more, followed by the buzzing of the laser gun as it fired three shots. The Doctor and Alex whirled around and took in the scene. The Sontaran lying face-down on the ground in front of Ollie, who held the laser gun in his hands, still pointed at the Sontaran's lifeless body.

"I said to put the gun down!" the Doctor shouted, advancing on Ollie angrily.

"He came at me! He was shouting!" Ollie whimpered, finally dropped the gun on the floor and shaking.

"He's four foot tall! What was he going to do to you?"

"But it's an alien!"

"So am I! Are you going to kill me?"

As the Doctor continued to berate Ollie, Alex knelt down beside the Sontaran and heaved him over so he was on his back. "Sorry," he said to it, as he closed the Sontaran's eyes.

"Come on," the Doctor said, pulling Alex to his feet. Ollie and his friends had retreated near to the house, though the Doctor had ordered everyone not to leave the garden; UNIT would need to speak to everyone. The Doctor walked over to the Sontaran's pod and sat inside, pressing buttons and pulling levers.

"What're you doing?" Alex asked.

"Need to disable the pod. Make it inactive so it doesn't blow up on us when UNIT try to move it," the Doctor pulled wires out of ports as he spoke and pointed a strange device at each one, which lit up in blue and emitted an unusual noise. Alex sighed and sat on the step out of the pod. The Doctor looked at him and took pity. "Listen," he told him, touching him on the shoulder compassionately. "When they arrive, I'll need to talk to them. But I'll make sure you don't have to. You've been through enough tonight."

"Thanks," Alex almost whispered. "You said you were an alien."

"I am."

"What kind?"

"Time Lord. Last of."

"Sorry."

The Doctor waved away Alex's pity. "I can give you a lift home if you want. Back to your parents'. No, you've probably moved out now haven't you? What're you, 23? 24?"

"Twenty-three. Yeah, I've moved out. No parents though, they died nearly a year ago."

"Oh. I'm... sorry... how?"

"Remember last Christmas Eve? That alien star thing?" The Doctor's eyes darkened slightly. He simply nodded. "Well, my parents were on this business trip to London. They were coming home on the train when one of those electricity beams hit the track. The train exploded. 87 people died."

"That was my fault..." the Doctor whispered.

"Sorry?" Alex asked, turning to the Doctor, who was still working on the console.

"Nothing. So... you've got no-one?"

"Got a sister. But she's with my grandparents, hardly ever see her anyway. No girlfriend anymore. I've thought about leaving. Karen – my sister – keeps my here. I'll always be here, as long as she needs me."

The Doctor seemed deep in thought. Eventually, he spoke. "What if I could give you an escape? The best escape ever. But one where you could come back home in the blink of an eye, whenever she needed you?"

Alex chuckled cynically. "That would be great. Don't know a cure to death too, do you?"

"Not one that I can teach." Alex turned to him again, questioningly. "Doesn't matter." He pulled one more wire out of a socket and used his blue light on it. "Right. Done."

"Now what?"

"Now, I want to show you something," the Doctor jumped out of the pod and began to jog towards the house. Alex followed, before stopping when the Doctor did. The Doctor turned to him. "We were never actually introduced, were we? What's your name?" the Doctor asked, holding out a hand.

"Alex. Alex Morgan." Alex took the Doctor's hand and shook it.

"Good to meet you Alex Morgan. I'm the Doctor. Now, come with me!" he ran through the open patio doors and into the dark house, Alex behind him, smiling.

F I R S T C O N T A C T

"What is it?"

"It's a phone box. Sort of." The Doctor had led Alex into Eva's living room. In the middle of the room stood a large blue box, with the words 'Police Public Call Box' on the top.

"And what is a Police Public Call Box? And why have you got one?"

"It's an old phone box that policemen used to use in the 50s and 60s."

"Why've _you_ got one?"

The Doctor, leaning on the box smiled and pushed the door open with his thumb. A yellow-ish white light spilled out of the door. "Step into my office."

Alex gazed inside, intrigued. He glanced at the Doctor, who smiled a cheeky smile. Succumbing to curiosity, he stepped forward and over the threshold of the mysterious blue box.


	15. Meanwhile: Three

Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Three

Alex smiled fondly as he recalled stepping into the TARDIS for the first time. Of course, it was different back then. Messier, with great coral pillars surrounding the console. He remembered his first trip in the TARDIS as well. The Doctor had taken him to a distant planet called Sto. It was populated by a race almost identical to humanity, but more technologically advanced. After the Doctor had attended a short memorial service for something called the Titanic, they were back into the TARDIS and throughout Time and Space. Soon after, they ran into a previous acquaintance of the Doctor's, Donna Noble. She'd joined them in their travels for a time, until she'd had to leave. That was life with the Doctor, Alex thought. You can run from anything; aliens, death, disasters, your own life. But when you fly with the Doctor, change is inevitable. And of course, the biggest change of all happened not much later. Regeneration. Alex settled onto the arm chair in his living room. He had a few hours to kill. Maybe he'd visit Karen...

Familiar engines sounded. The TARDIS began to materialise in the centre of the room, blowing papers and clothes all over the place. Alex stared at it in surprise, almost irritated. The door opened and the Doctor stuck his head out.

"Alright? Not late are we?"

"You've been gone about five minutes!"

"Oh, well, good. In you get."

"You said you'd be a few hours," Alex said indignantly as he sloped inside. Amy grinned at him from a chair at the console as he entered. He responded heartily.

"Yeah, for us. Why waste time when we can get you back here in five minutes?"

Alex had no answer to that. He settled into his own chair. "What did Winnie want then?"

"Actually, before we get to that, let me ask you one question," the Doctor said seriously, kneeling in front of the chair and putting his hands on Alex's knees.. He took a deep breath, staring at Alex. "Do you remember the Daleks?"

"The what-leks?" Alex asked, in fake intrigue. The Doctor's head dropped, eyes closed in worry. Alex chuckled and punched him on the arm lightly. "'Course I remember the Daleks. Not likely to forget. Why'd you ask?"

"Because I've never heard of them, and apparently I should have done," Amy announced, getting up from her chair.

"Well yeah. You should have," Alex told her, also confused now. "They invaded our world. A couple of years back. Transported Earth across the universe? You don't remember that?"

"No, she doesn't, and she should," the Doctor jumped to his feet and pulled a lever or two on the console.

Alex glanced at Amy, who shrugged. "So what did he want then?"

"He was using them," the Doctor said, looking at Alex over his shoulder. "The Daleks. They'd disguised themselves as World War Two robotic weapons. He was using them to fight the Nazis. Wanted my opinion on them."

"_Churchill_? Was using _Daleks_?" Alex laughed. "That's a bit rich. And not very Dalek. Why were they doing that?"

The Doctor briefly explained to Alex what had happened. Churchill's unwillingness to believe the Doctor's story, how Amy was insistent she didn't recognise them, how the Progenitor didn't recognise the Daleks as pure, and so needed the Doctor's testimony to accept them. He told Alex, to his shock, about the new Dalek Paradigm; the red Drone, the orange Scientist, the blue Strategist, the yellow Eternal and the white Supreme. And he told him of the Dalek's escape.

"So they're still out there?" Alex asked in horror.

"Somewhere in Time," the Doctor confirmed grimly. "They'll show up." He suddenly brightened up. "Right then, where to now?"

"Planet," Amy said instantly. "I want an alien planet. You gave him one first go. I've had London both times!"

"Your first one was a gigantic spaceship!" the Doctor protested.

"Yeah, an area of which doubled-up as _London_!"

"You'd be surprised," Alex said. "All of Time and Space, and we spend a surprising amount of time in London."

"Fine," the Doctor declared, slightly insulted. "I'll give you extra-terrestrial. We're going to the Delirium Archive," he smiled as he piloted the TARDIS, evidently excited by their destination.

"Is that a planet?" Amy asked excitedly.

Alex was more shrewd. He narrowed his eyes. "I doubt it."

"It's good! You'll like it, promise." the Doctor was defensive. "So, how's Karen?"

"I don't know, you didn't give me a chance to see her."

"Daisy?" the Doctor asked absent-mindedly. Alex stared at him in disbelief until the Doctor looked up in response to Alex's silence. He realised his mistake. "Oh yeah. Sorry."

"Who's Daisy?" Amy chipped in.

"Girlfriend. Sort of, girlfriend. Well, no, ex-girlfriend. Still friends though." Amy giggled at Alex's awkwardness. Alex attempted to change the subject slightly. "How's Rory? Haven't seen him since the hospital."

"He's good yeah. Still my boyfriend. Sort of..."

"Not your ex?" Alex joked.

"No! Definitely not my... ex. Anything but..."

"Okay... Well maybe you can go home for a bit later. See him,"

"Yeah... I might have something to tell you both first though,"

"I'm all-ears," Alex told her, smiling cheerfully.

"Well, we're sort of-"

"Landed!" the Doctor cried triumphantly, interrupting. They had indeed landed with a bump once again, knocking Alex slightly off-balance. The Doctor ran over to the pair and ushered them towards the door. "Come on, come on. You'll like this, I promise!"

"Where did you say we were?"

"Come on, out!" The Doctor pushed Alex and Amy out of the TARDIS. Looking around, they noticed that the TARDIS had landed in what seemed to be a vast, ornate hall. It looked like it had come straight from a period drama. It also appeared to be similar to a church with enormous stained-glass windows entirely covering one wall. There were even pews on one side of the room. The only unusual difference was the fact that there were museum exhibits lining the walls which the Doctor was already on his way to.

"The Delirium Archive!" the Doctor told them gleefully.

"Definitely not a planet," Alex said to Amy, sighing.

After a moment, she replied, deadpan, almost in disgust; "It's a museum."


	16. The Time of Angels: One

_Woo! Here we go, The Time of Angels! I thought this episode was fantastic, so I want to write this well! Thanks again for all of your kind reviews; they really do help with motivation! And, in a shameless plug for followers, I'm on Twitter under AlexTheJeff. I'll be tweeting about my writing, so feel free to follow, if you're on Twitter :) _

The Time of Angels – Part One

Alex and Amy exchanged glances before following the Doctor, who was already engrossed in an exhibit.

"Recognise this?" he asked Alex as they joined him.

"'The first meteorite to fall to Earth in the deadly showers of 6417'" Alex read from the plaque that accompanied the glass case.

"Ignore that, it's wrong. Look at it, it's clearly not a rock, really look."

Alex looked. The more he did, the more he noticed the Doctor was right. It certainly wasn't a meteorite. At the top were two fairly large holes, above a smaller one. Realisation dawned on him. "It's a skull," he concluded.

"Yes," the Doctor said, leaning on the box. "A skull of what, though?" Alex shrugged. "Skull of an Ik-haal, the invasion force of 63-"

"-81," Alex finished. He and the Doctor had put a stop to the Ik-haal's invasion of Earth fairly recently. Alex grinned and looked at the skull closely. "What's it doing here?"

"Same sort of time period, looks a bit like a meteor. Stick it in a box and say it's a meteor." The Doctor pushed away from the exhibit and walked down the corridor, taking in the rest of the displays. "Wrong," he said loudly as he passed one. "Wrong," he repeated. "Bit right, mostly wrong."

"Doctor," Alex called, glancing at the museum official that had turned a corner, looking slightly disgruntled. "Inside voice?" He jogged to catch up with the Doctor and Amy.

"Oh shut up. I love museums."

"Yeah, great. Can we go to a planet now?" Amy asked, walking past an exhibit without a second glance. "Big spaceship, Churchill's bunker. You promised me a planet next!"

"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid. It's the Delirium Archive. The final resting place of the Headless Monks. The biggest museum, _ever_."

"Let me guess," Alex said. "You got a message on the psychic paper telling you to come here."

"Why'd you think that? Wrong!"

"Well, last time we went to the biggest _blank_ ever, the Library, you got a message on the psychic paper."

"So I did. Well, this is just for fun. I love museums! Wrong! Very wrong! Ooh, one of mine," the Doctor said happily, running over to one of the displays and looking inside. "Also one of mine,"

"Oh, I see. It's how you keep score!"

Alex strolled around the edge of the room, glancing into the glass cases. He read the plaque of one - An ancient device circa 21st Century Earth. Believed by archaeologists to be a primitive locking system. Alex looked at the small rectangular object inside the case.

"Wrong!" the Doctor shouted again.

"And this one," Alex spoke up. "'Primitive locking system'. It's an iPod!"

"Not you too?" Amy asked.

The Doctor had been silenced by another exhibit. He walked all the way around it, taking it in from all angles, before coming to lean on the box. He stared at it. Alex and Amy glanced at each other, before joining him there. Inside was what appeared to be a small stone box. On top of the box were odd squiggles that looked similar to letters but were illegible.

"Oh great, an old box," Amy said, not understanding the Doctor's curiosity.

"It's from one of the old star-liners," the Doctor said eventually, looking up at Alex and Amy. "A home box."

"What's a home box?" Amy humoured the Doctor, very obviously bored.

"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the home box flies home with all the flight data,"

"So?"

"What happened to the ship then?" Alex tried.

"No idea. But the writing. The graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords." Alex raised his eyes in surprise. Amy still appeared uninterested. "There were days. There were many days; these words could burn stars, and raise up empires, and topple gods!"

"What does this say?"

The Doctor didn't speak for a moment. He blinked and exhaled before going on. "'Hello sweetie'."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Want to try retranslating that?"

The Doctor shot a look at Alex and smiled mischievously. He subtly took the Sonic Screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. "Ready?" he asked.

Alex closed his eyes, smiling, knowing what was coming. He nodded and put his hand on Amy's arm. "Get ready to run," he whispered.

"What? Why?"

A hideously shrill alarm blared, reverberating around the room. Alex and Amy looked at the Doctor, who had the home box in his hands, the glass case smashed. The Doctor turned and sprinted down the hall towards the TARDIS. Amy and Alex raced after him as two museum guards rounded a corner and chased after them, large guns in their hands. They reached the TARDIS and rushed inside the doors, slamming them shut behind them.

The Doctor jumped up to the TARDIS console and set it to dematerialise. He then began to hurriedly wire the home box up to the console.

"Why're we doing this?" Amy asked as the Doctor connected the home box to the TARDIS monitor.

"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract my attention," he replied as he altered the controls. "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."

"After twelve thousand years?"

The monitor displayed static before settling down and showing a security camera. It showed a glamorous woman dressed in an elegant black dress. She was wearing large sunglasses, and had a small pistol held in her right hand. She looked left and right down the corridor before looking directly at the camera and winking. She then strolled away from the camera.

"But that's..." Alex tailed off. The Doctor just nodded. He altered the home box again. The view changed; it now showed the woman with her back to the camera, at the end of a rounded corridor.

"Party's over Doctor Song," said a male voice. "Yet still you're on board."

The woman turned slowly the face the man. "Sorry Alistair. I needed to see what was in your vault," she said, slightly patronising. "Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you one thing; this ship won't reach its destination."

"She hasn't changed much," Alex whispered, smiling.

"You know her?" Amy asked. Alex and the Doctor both nodded, glued to the screen. "Who is she then?"

"Wait 'til she runs," said the man named Alistair. He spoke to two armed guards, standing at his flanks. "Don't make it look like an execution."

The woman sighed inwardly, before looking at something on her wrist. A watch? "Triple seven five slash three four nine by ten, zero twelve. Slash acorn," she read off of it before glancing directly at the camera and smiling seductively. "Oh and I could do with an air corridor."

The Doctor reacted, hastily pulling levers, pressing buttons and typing on the typewriter.

"What was that, what did she say?"

"Co-ordinates!"

"Like I said on the dance floor," the woman continued, speaking to Alistair again. "You might want to find something to hang on to!"

Alex continued to watch the monitor. Though he couldn't tell why, Alistair and the two guards grabbed the large pipes lining the corridor, holding onto them with all their might. "What're they doing?" he asked himself. He didn't have to wait long to find out. The door the woman was standing behind opened, revealing the depths of space behind it. "What's _she_ doing?" he cried, as the woman soared out of the door, blowing a kiss to the camera cheekily.

The TARDIS landed. The Doctor whooped and raced towards the doors of the TARDIS, throwing them open. Glancing back to the monitor, Alex looked through the open door on the ship and saw that the woman was flying towards something. A blue box, floating in space...

"Ah!" said a new voice. Alex spun around to see the Doctor on the floor, with a familiar woman on top of him and the TARDIS doors open.

"Doctor?" Amy asked, crossing her arms.

"River?" Alex and the Doctor asked simultaneously.

River got to her feet and looked out of the door. The vast spaceship she had escaped from began to fly away from them, into the distance. "Follow that ship," she told the Doctor, before slamming the doors and running up to the console. "Hey!" she breathed to Alex and Amy before throwing her bag onto one of the chairs, hanging her high heels on the TARDIS monitor and pulling a lever, setting the TARDIS to speed after the ship.

"Oi!" the Doctor cried, knocked off balance by the sheer speed and volatility of the TARDIS' movement. "I can do that!" he said, affronted. He joined River at the console, and pulled levers of his own.

"So can I! We need to speed up," River replied, slamming down a hand on a large button. Alex was knocked off balance again, thrown against the safety banisters as the TARDIS did indeed speed up. "They've gone into warp drive. We're losing them! Stay close."

"I'm trying!" the Doctor responded defensively.

Amy's legs buckled as the TARDIS shook, still chasing the enormous spaceship. Alex staggered over to her, helping her to her feet.

"Use the stabilizers!" River cried.

"It doesn't have stabilizers,"

"The blue switches,"

"The blue ones don't do anything,"

"Try them anyway!" Alex shouted as he and Amy held onto the console for dear life.

"They're just blue!"

"Yes they're blue! They're the blue stabilizers!" She hurried around to where the Doctor stood and pushed two small blue buttons. The TARDIS _boom_ed, before settling completely. If it weren't for the readings and views on the scanner, Alex thought, you'd be forgiven for thinking they weren't even moving. "See?" River said, grinning.

"Yeah. Well. It's just _boring_ now isn't it? They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers."

"She knows this ship better than you," Alex gasped, catching his breath and finding his feet.

"No she doesn't!" the Doctor said, shaking his finger at Alex.

"Yes I do," River nodded.

"Doctor, how come she can fly the TARDIS?" Amy whispered, sneaking up behind him.

"You call that 'flying the TARDIS'? _Ha_!" He stalked away, sitting down on one of the chairs.

"Having a sulk?" Alex asked him in mock compassion. The Doctor grimaced at him.

River chuckled. "Get that red lever for me, Alex... Okay! I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, chartered the ship to its destination, and..."

"Yeah. Better than you,"

"Parked us right along-side!" she finished, pressing one last button.

"_Parked_ us?" the Doctor asked, disgusted. "We haven't landed."

"Of course we've landed. I just landed her," River triumphantly showed the Doctor the monitor, confirming the landing.

"But..." the Doctor started, almost confused. "It didn't make the noise."

"What noise?"

"Y'know, the..." the Doctor went on to make a poor impersonation of the normal TARDIS materialisation noise, a guttural noise from the back of his throat.

"It's not supposed to make that noise. _You_ leave the brakes on,"

"Better than you," Alex murmured again.

The Doctor ignored him entirely. "Yeah, well. It's a brilliant noise. I love that noise. Come along Pond. Let's have a look. Leave _these two_ alone," he emphasized. Alex smiled and shook his head.

"No wait!" River called suddenly. "Environment checks!"

"Oh yes, sorry! Quite right. Environment checks!" He strolled over to the door and stuck his head out of it. Sunlight beamed in, along with the sound of waves crashing onto a beach, and birds squawking in the distance. "Nice out," he concluded.

"We're somewhere in the Ghan Belt," River read off of the monitor. "There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that-"

"We're on Alfalva Metraxis. The seventh planet of the Dundra System. Oxygen-rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven-hour day and..." he put his head out of the door again, smelling. "Chances of rain later." He rejoined his friends at the console and took a seat.

"He thinks he's so hot when he does that," River said to Alex and Amy.

"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" Amy asked her.

"Oh, I had lessons from the _very_ best,"

"Well... yeah," the Doctor chuckled modestly.

"Yes, Alex was a phenomenal teacher," River went on. Alex turned to her, both stunned and amused. River picked up her shoes from the monitor and strode towards the doors. "Right then. Why did they land here?"

"They didn't land," the Doctor told her smugly, jumping from his seat and following River to the door. "You should've checked the home box. It crashed."

River reached the door and ventured outside. Alex went to follow her, but the Doctor got there first. He closed the door before Alex could leave, and turned to him and Amy, giving them a look before walking back to the console.

"Explain," Amy demanded of them. "Who was that and how did she do that museum thing?"

"It's a long story, and I don't know most of it. Off we go."

"We can't just leave her here!" Alex cried as the Doctor typed onto the typewriter.

"Yes we can, I can do whatever I want. And I want to leave. She got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."

"Are we basically running away?"

"Yep,"

"Why?"

"Because she's the future, our future," he said, gesturing to Alex.

"Can you run away from that?"

"I can run away from anything I like, time is not the boss of me."

"Do I get a say?" Alex chipped in.

"'Course you do. Where d'you wanna go?"

"I mean about staying here. She's my future too..." Alex smiled pleadingly. "We can't just leave her on a strange planet with a crashed ship."

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. Alex knew he was considering the options and he knew the Doctor knew he was right.

"Hold on! Is that a planet out there?" Amy suddenly asked.

"_Yes_, of course it's a planet," the Doctor told her exasperatedly.

"You promised me a planet," Amy gleefully put a hand to her mouth. "Five minutes?" she tried.

The Doctor looked from Amy to Alex and back again, seeing the hope on both of their faces. He succumbed. "Okay, _five_ minutes."

"_Yes_!" Amy whooped. She high-fived Alex and they jumped towards the TARDIS doors.

"But that's all!" the Doctor called after them. "Because I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything!"

Alex threw open the doors and stepped outside. He was met with an incredibly smokey atmosphere. Coughing, he stumbled forward and stood next to River. He followed her line of vision and gasped, inhaling more smoke. The enormous spaceship had crashed an almighty crash. It had plunged into what seemed to be a stone temple, embedding itself deep inside. Somehow however, the building was still standing, though shards of debris lay for hundreds of metres around. Thick, black smoke billowed from the crash site, and fires of varying size and strength raged all around them. Amy and the Doctor stood on either side of Alex and River.

"What caused it to crash?" River asked as the Doctor arrived at her side. "Not me?" she didn't sound at all concerned.

"Nah; the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the home box the warp engines had a phase ship. No survivors."

"Phase shift's going to be sabotage, right?" Alex asked. River and the Doctor both turned to look at him in surprise. He grinned and nodded. "Oh yeah, picked up a thing or two."

"Well, I did warn them though,"

"About what?"

"At least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries..." River took out a small machine from her bag and pressed a few buttons. The Doctor backed away from her slightly, followed by Amy and Alex.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy asked.

"Amy Pond... Professor River Song," he waved his hand towards River, still working on the machine. She stopped and turned, gasping in surprise.

"I'm going to be a professor someday am I? _How exciting_!" she laughed as the Doctor silently berated himself. "Spoilers!"

"You know Alex, I assume?" he said, changing the subject.

"Oh yeah, we go way back," she said, turning back to the beeping machine again.

"Yeah, but who is she? And how did she do that?" Amy whispered. The Doctor shushed her. "She just left you a note in the museum!"

River responded to Amy's question, not turning back to her. "Two things always guaranteed to turn up in a museum," she explained. "The home box of a category four star-liner. And sooner or later... _him_. It's how he keeps score!"

"I know!" Amy laughed. "Alex is quite bad too actually,"

"I am _not_!" Alex protested.

"It's hilarious isn't it," River said. She and Amy laughed together.

The Doctor feigned laughter sarcastically and rejoined them. "I'm nobody's taxi service! I'm not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a spaceship!" he told River, pointing his finger at her like she was a naughty school child.

"And you are so wrong." The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked away again. Alex patted him on the shoulder, chuckling. "There's one survivor," River went on. "There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die." Alex and the Doctor looked at each other and then at River, who was gazing at them expectantly. "Now they're listening," she said to Amy, smiling, before placing her machine to her ear and speaking into it. "You lot in orbit yet?... Yeah I saw it land, I'm at the crash site, try and home in on my signal."

"Can't die?" Alex asked the Doctor as River got out of earshot.

"No idea. Everything dies, eventually..."

"Doctor," River called, holding up the machine in the air. "Can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."

The Doctor grudgingly took out the Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it in River's direction, holding it in two hands. She curtseyed and spoke into it again.

"Ooh Doctor, you _sonicked_ her!" Amy whispered cheekily.

"We have a minute," River called again, having finished on her improvised phone. "Shall we?"

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor marched towards where River stood, who was busy removing something else from her handbag. As they arrived, Alex realised it was a familiar blue book, a diary designed to look like the front door of the TARDIS. The pages of the book were old and battered.

"Right then, where are we up to..?" River asked, flicking through it.

"Didn't we leave that at the L-"

"-Shhh," the Doctor interrupted. Alex understood, and silently nodded his apology.

"Have we done the Bow Meadows?"

"What's the book?" Amy asked, approaching River.

"Stay away from it!"

"What is it though?"

"Her diary,"

"_Our_ diary," River corrected.

"Her past. My... future. Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order."

"No we haven't," Alex told River, responding to her unanswered question. She smiled and nodded.

A whooshing sound put a stop to any further conversation. Turning to find the source of the noise, Alex noticed four mini tornados forming about ten metres from where he stood. He squinted to look at them but they soon vanished. In their place stood four men, dressed in desert military attire and each carrying a large, dangerous-looking machine gun. They seemed on alert, constantly moving to gain a complete view of the surrounding area before relaxing and lowering their weapons. The man who appeared to be in charge approached the group.

"You promised me an army, Doctor Song," he told her, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"No. I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor."

The man's eyes widened slightly as he shifted his gaze to the Doctor, who saluted whole-heartedly. He held out a hand, which the Doctor shook. "Father Octavian sir. Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation." Octavian spoke hurriedly, as if wanting to get the formalities over with quickly. He glanced at River and back to the Doctor. "Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?" he asked, a tad apprehensively.

"Doctor," River smiled, turning to look at him. "What do you know... of the Weeping Angels?"


	17. The Time of Angels: Two

_I'm thinking there might be four parts to this episode? Oh well, more Angels for us!_

The Time of Angels – Part Two

"So what is a Weeping Angel?" Alex asked the Doctor as Father Octavian quickly led the group to a base of operations inside a cave.

"It's an alien. From the beginning of the universe, or near enough and, probably, the most dangerous creature in the universe..."

"Worse than the Daleks?"

"You can reason with a Dalek... sometimes. You can keep it talking. An Angel doesn't talk."

"And you've seen them before?"

The Doctor nodded. "Just the once. Few years ago, when I was with Martha."

"Not long before we met then?"

"Nah, few months. Sort of,"

"Sir," Octavian said, interrupting. They had arrived. Alex looked around in the enormous cavern they had been led to. Floodlights were set up in a large circle beginning at the entrance to the cave, and walkways had been laid down between working areas. Walk-in pods were scattered around, as well as lone desks and cases left lying on the floor. Complicated machinery could be seen all around.

"Father Octavian. If I might be permitted to change?" River asked. She was still dressed in her dinner dress, holding her expensive high heels in her hand.

Octavian nodded and River walked away into one of the pods. Octavian led the Doctor, Alex and Amy across the cavern. "The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top; we'd be too close to the drives." He took out a machine similar to River's as they arrived at a table laden-down with equipment. He read off of the screen. "According to this, behind the cliff-face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber and then work our way up."

"Sounds good to me," Alex said. "All in a day's work eh?"

"That is the idea sir, yes."

"Good," the Doctor said bluntly.

"Good sir?"

"Catacombs, probably dark ones. Dark catacombs, _great_."

"Technically, I think it's called a Maze of the Dead,"

"You can stop any time you like..."

"Father Octavian!" came a call from across the chamber.

"Excuse me sir," Octavian murmured, leaving to respond to the soldier. The Doctor waved him away and took out the Screwdriver, scanning the complicated equipment on the table.

"You're lettin' people call you sir," Amy spoke up at last. "You never do that."

"She's right actually," said Alex, who had picked up one of the machines that River and Octavian had used and was examining it. "That's new."

The Doctor didn't respond.

"So whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?"

"And dark catacombs are a problem because..?"

"You two, you're still here. What part of wait in the TARDIS 'til I say it was safe was so confusing?"

"Probably the fact that you've never told me to wait in the TARDIS in about three years," Alex said cheekily, placing the machine back onto the table.

"Because you haven't been in this much danger in about three years!"

"Ohh. Are you all Mr. Grumpy-Face today?" Amy asked mockingly. Alex followed suit, pulling a similar face.

"A Weeping Angel is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and right now, one of them is trapped inside that wreckage, and I'm supposed to climb in after it with a Screwdriver and a torch, and assuming I survive the radiation long enough, and assuming the whole ship doesn't just blow up in my face, do something incredibly clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?"

"Can I come?" Alex asked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Amy?"

"Is River Song your wife?"

"Right Alex, back to your question-"

"'Cos she's someone from your future. And the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that... She's kinda like, y'know, 'Heel boy!' She's Mrs Doctor from the future isn't she? Is she gonna be your wife one day..?"

"Yes. You're right." the Doctor nodded. Amy's eyes widened in surprise as she gasped. Alex raised an eyebrow. The Doctor sighed. "I am definitely Mr. Grumpy-Face today. And yes, you can come."

"Doctor! Doctor!" called a familiar voice. Looking over, Alex saw River at the door to one of the military pods, now dressed in similar desert gear to the soldiers. The Doctor sighed again, his back to her.

"Oops. Her indoors!"

"Father Octavian!" River called again. She beckoned to them and withdrew back inside. The Doctor led the way along the walkways to the pod, behind Octavian.

"Why d'they call him Father?"

"He's their bishop, they're his clerics. It's the 51st Century. The Church has moved on," the Doctor said, leaping into the pod. Walking inside, Alex noticed a large monitor on the far wall. River had wired up her machine to it and on the screen was a grainy, blurry image. There was a stone statue on the screen, an angel, its hands covering its eyes. A timer on the bottom right corner continued to reset, showing that this was a four-second loop.

"What d'you think?" River asked as she placed the remote control down. She directed the question at the Doctor after letting him take in the image. The Doctor went close to the screen, getting a good look. "It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality, it's four seconds. I've put it on loop."

"Yep, it's an Angel," the Doctor concluded. "Hands covering its face."

"You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian asked.

"Oh, once, on Earth, long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."

"Wait, _that's_ an Angel? _That's_ 'the most dangerous thing in the universe'? It's just a statue..."

"It's a statue when you see it," River corrected.

"Where did it come from?" asked the Doctor.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time."

"There's a difference between dormant and patient."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "Why isn't it moving? But, if it's just a statue?"

"Statue when you see it?" Amy both corrected and asked. "What d'you mean?"

"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it,"

"No it's not legend. It's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone."

"Why can't you just stick a mirror in front of it, let it see itself?"

The Doctor made a noise, as if he were thinking. "Well, probably doesn't work like that... But it's the ultimate defence mechanism."

"What, being a stone?" Amy asked.

"Being a stone until you turn your back..."

"Fine, pour acid on it when it's stone, let it dissolve. Problem solved!"

"Alex, these things have been terrorising the universe for millennia. No offence, but I think it's going to take a bit more than that. Besides, it's only one Angel, that's no problem. To business!" he clapped his hands together and jumped from the pod. He strode outside followed by Octavian, River and Alex.

"The hyper-drive would've split open on impact. That whole ship's gonna be flooded with drive burn, radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms. Deadly to almost any living thing!"

"Deadly to an Angel?" asked Octavian hopefully.

"Dinner to an Angel!" the Doctor clapped his hands again. "The longer we leave it there, the stronger it will grow! Who built that temple, are they still around?"

"The Aplans!" called River, reading from her machine again. "Indigenous life form. Died out 400 years ago."

"And 400 years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists-"

The Doctor whooped in appreciation. "You lot, you're everywhere, you're like _rabbits_! I'll never get done saving you..."

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population-"

"Oh there is, bad as it gets. Bishop? Lock and load."

Octavian nodded and called to one of his soldiers. "Verger, how're we doing with those explosives?" he asked, making his way to the blast zone where explosives were being lined-up against the cliff-face. "Doctor Song? With me."

"Two minutes!" she cried. "Sweetie, I need you!" she jogged away. After a moment or two, the Doctor turned and followed.

"Anybody need me?" Amy called from the door of the pod, her arms outstretched. "Nobody?"

Alex laughed as he strolled past and jumped inside. "I need you Amy," he joked, winking.

"Good! Us humans gotta stick together!"

Alex chuckled again and looked around inside the pod for a chair. He pulled a stool out from under the desk inside and took a seat. Amy stared at the screen for a moment.

"Has that moved?" she asked suddenly, nodding towards it.

"Has what moved?"

"The Angel. It had its face in its hands. Now they aren't..."

Looking at the screen, Alex realised Amy was right. The Angel on the screen had moved its head away from its hands slightly. "Must be more than one recording," Alex concluded after gazing at the screen for a few seconds.

"Let's ask!" Amy said. She went to the door to the pod and stuck her head out. "Doctor Song?" she called to River, who was standing at a table with the Doctor. "Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?"

"No, just the four seconds," River replied dismissively, barely stopping her work. Alex frowned at Amy, who returned the look. They both looked back towards the screen.

"It's moved again!" Alex cried. The Angel was now looking at the screen face-on. Only now could Alex appreciate the mix of beauty and ugliness that the Angel had been bestowed with.

"But that's..." Amy whispered. "Where's the remote?" she asked Alex. He turned to look on the desk behind him, only to whirl back around at Amy's gasp. The Angel was closer to the monitor now, glowering into it, as if gazing right at Alex and Amy. A clunking noise brought Alex back to consciousness. Looking around for the source of the noise, he realised that the door had closed. Dismissing it as a soldier outside, he got to his feet and joined Amy at the screen. He rapped his knuckles on the screen.

"What's that gonna do?" she chuckled.

"Well, I don't know," Alex laughed. "Maybe it's a window or something!" He hit the wall under the screen in an attempt to turn it off. It didn't move. "Remote!" he said suddenly, having noticed it lying on a small desk to the side. He picked it up and passed it to Amy. She pointed it at the screen, pressing the large red button. The screen turned off momentarily. The image of the Angel returned moments later. The counter in the bottom corner told them that the clip was still a looped four seconds. Amy tried again. The same thing happened.

"Let me have a go," Alex said. Amy passed him the remote. He pressed the button and succeeded in turning the screen off – for a moment. The image returned instantaneously. He shook his head in confusion. "This isn't possible. How is it moving?"

"But it's just a recording," Amy pointed out. "It _can't_ move..." She looked down and noticed a large black wire, plugged into the bottom of the monitor. "What's this?" she asked Alex.

"Not a clue. Power for the TV maybe?" Amy put her hands on it and pulled it with all her might. It didn't budge. Alex put his hands on it too and they both heaved, grunting slightly. Still it didn't move. "Well that's not working." Amy gasped in horror, backing away from the screen. "You alright?" he asked. Amy nodded towards the screen silently. Her eyes wide. "Bloody hell!" Alex almost shouted, recoiling. The Angel was now incredibly close to the screen, its face filling the entire screen, its empty eyes boring through."

"What is it?" Amy whispered, scared.

"I think.. we should leave," Alex replied, also speaking quietly. "This isn't right..."

"Doctor?" Amy called out.

Alex took two large steps to reach the door and attempted to turn the handle. It wouldn't move. "Doctor?" he shouted, knocking on the door.

"What's wrong?"

"I think the door's locked," Alex grunted, his slightly sweaty hands slipping on the turning wheel.

"Let me try," Amy said. Both again putting their hands on it, they pulled as hard as they could, before stopping, Amy breathing heavily. "...Alex?"

Almost expecting it, Alex glanced grudgingly towards the screen. The Angel's face was now vicious, baring stone fangs, and malevolence in its empty eyes.

"This isn't possible!" Alex cried. "It's a tape recording, it can't move!"

"Doctor?" Amy stuttered, tapping the door. Fear was setting in.

"Okay," Alex said breathlessly. "On three. One... two... three..." Both he and Amy shouted for the Doctor as loudly as they could, pounding on the door heavily. No luck.

Amy!" Alex shouted. The screen was now empty. Instead, a large, six-foot statue stood in the middle of the pod, blinking with static as if it were still a video clip, slightly translucent. Its arms were raised in attack, claws primed, razor fangs at the ready once more.

"Doctor! It's in the room!" Amy shouted, terrified, slamming her hand on the door.

"Where the hell is he?" Alex shouted in dismay, keeping his eyes on the Angel. If what the Doctor and River had said was true, it could not move as long as he looked at it.

"Are you alright? What's happening?" came the Doctor's fearful voice at last, muffled through the wrought-iron door.

"Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here!"

"Don't take your eyes off it, keep looking, it can't move if you're looking!"

"Tell him I am," Alex told Amy, his eyes already beginning to ache.

"Alex is, he's watching it."

"Don't blink. Take it in turns to watch it, it can't move as long as one of you is!"

"Doctor?" Amy called again. There was silence from outside.

"What's he doing?" Alex asked. His eyes were beginning to water.

"I don't know! Help us!" she shouted through the door.

"Amy, I need to blink, look at the Angel!" Alex shouted, exerting herculean effort to keep his eyes open. Telling him she was, he succumbed, blinking his eyes several times, wiping the water away from them.

"Can you turn it off?" the Doctor asked through the door.

"What?"

"The screen, can you turn it off?"

"We tried."

"Try again, but don't take your eyes off the Angel, either of you!"

"I'll get the remote," Alex said, circling the Angel to keep as far away from it as possible. "You need to blink?" he asked, picking it up from the small table.

"Yeah, quick,"

Alex looked over and saw through the Angel that Amy was having to blink one eye at a time to continue looking at it. "Okay, go,"

"Don't blink unless it's safe," came the Doctor's voice through the door. "Each time it moves it'll move faster!"

Alex pointed the remote at the screen and pressed the button. As predicted, the Angel disappeared for a moment before reappearing.

"It just keeps switching back on!" Amy shouted. As she continued to look at the Angel, Alex turned to the screen and, in frustration, punched it. He grunted in pain, before turning his attentions back to the wire, again pulling with all his might.

"Yeah, it's the Angel,"

"But it's just a recording..."

"Come ON!" Alex shouted angrily, yanking the wire as hard as he could.

"Nope, anything that takes the image of an Angel... is an Angel."

"Blink Amy," Alex told her, turning to look at the back of the Angel. She relieved herself and Alex turned his attentions back to the monitor. He couldn't imagine how scared Amy was. At least he wasn't in a position to look at the Angel's ferocious, feral face. There was nothing he could do. He sighed and collapsed against the back wall of the pod, sinking to the floor.

"Doctor? What's it gonna do to us?" Amy almost whispered.

"Both of you keep looking. Don't stop looking! Alex, keep looking at it! Don't you _dare_ give up!" his voice trailed off as he hurried away from the pod.

Alex sighed. There was no way out. He took a deep breath. He had to stay strong for Amy's sake. "Come on Amy. Take a break. I'll keep an eye on it," he said, far too upbeat, getting back to his feet.

"We should both watch it," she said bravely. "Give ourselves the best chance,"

"Just take a blink-break,"

"No. Too scared to blink."

"Not the eyes!" the Doctor had returned. "Look at the Angel but don't look at the eyes!"

"Why?" both Amy and Alex shouted to him.

"What is it?" Alex heard River's voice faintly.

"The eyes are not the windows to the soul they are the doors. Beware what may enter there,"

"Doctor, what did you say?"

"Not the eyes Amy. Look at its body, not the eyes," Alex told her, watching the back of the Angel's head.

"No, about images. What did you say about images?"

"Whatever holds the image of an Angel is an Angel!" River shouted through the thick, iron door.

"Alex, pass me the remote," Amy said authoritatively.

"What?"

"Bring the remote round here. I've got an idea."

Deciding not to question her, Alex sidled around the pod, keeping his eyes on the Angel at all times. He passed Amy the remote when he got there, who took it.

"Okay. Hold this," she murmured to the Angel. "One, two, three, _four_!" She emphasized the word 'four' with a press of the button. The Angel flickered for a moment before disappearing. The television screen flashed and powered down, turning off and leaving the pod empty.

"What did you do?" Alex asked, laughing. The Doctor forced the door open, which had unlocked when the Angel had disappeared and he and River charged inside.

"I froze it!" Amy said, chuckling at her own luck. "There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip," she said, breathing deeply. The Doctor strode past them both towards the screen. He pulled the wire out from the bottom with ease and scanned it with the Sonic Screwdriver. "It wasn't the image of an Angel anymore. That was good yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good." The Doctor grinned. Alex laughed, triumphantly.

"That was amazing," River said in awe.

"Too right it was. You just saved my life," Alex said, pulling Amy into a tight hug. "Thank you."

"Yeah! Kinda creamed it, didn't I?"

The Doctor looked at the readings on the Screwdriver, before retracting its claws in thought.

"So it was here? That was the Angel?"

"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out. Getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant..."

An explosion sounded outside, making River, Amy and Alex jump. Sounded like they were through... The Doctor ran outside to investigate, followed by everyone else.

"Doctor?" shouted Father Octavian, taking safety goggles off. Dust was beginning to settle already from the explosion. "We're through!"

"Okay..." the Doctor said, almost excitedly. He looked at Alex, Amy and River and smiled slightly. "Now it starts..." He leapt from the pod and followed Octavian towards the blown hole. Alex followed him.

"You okay?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, fine. Thanks to Amy. Good thing you brought her with us really,"

"Yeah... Well, y'know. She's fun, you're fun. I like fun."

The Doctor and Alex joined a queue of soldiers. River and Amy soon joined them. A man walked down the line, distributing torches amongst the soldiers and recruits. Before long, the Doctor reached the front of the line. With gusto, he seized the top of the rope ladder that descended into the pit in the ground and quickly scrambled down it. Placing his torch between his teeth, Alex followed suit.


	18. The Time of Angels: Three

_Longer part than usual today. In fact, the longest part ever, I think! It was either one very long part, or two rather short parts. Anyway as ever, thanks for your reviews, and please continue to give them! I'm very grateful for every one!_

The Time of Angels – Part Three

Alex reached the end of the shabby rope ladder and stepped onto the hard ground. He took his torch out of his mouth and wiped it on his shirt before switching it on and waving it around, trying to get a look at his surroundings. His torch beam could barely reach the ceiling of the cave, and he could see a selection of soldiers standing in a rough circle. The Doctor was at the head of the group, looking directly into the cavern.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" he asked Octavian as River and Amy arrived at the bottom of the ladder.

"Grav globe?" Octavian commanded. A soldier reached into a shoulder bag and withdrew a small white ball which was passed from his hands to Octavian's to the Doctor's.

"Where are we?" asked Amy, also swinging her torch around. "What is this?"

"It's an Aplan Mortarium,"

"A Maze of the Dead!" Alex recalled.

"And that is..?"

"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." the Doctor threw the gravity globe into the air and kicked it high into the rafters of the cave with expert precision. It came to a stop at the dead centre of the cave and hovered there. It bathed every nook and cranny in a bright white light. It revealed hundreds of decayed paths and walkways, cliffs fifty feet high and ancient, derelict buildings dotted around. Standing in every conceivable place, totally surrounding them, where hundreds of weathered old stone statues. Some were one-armed, some were armless. Most had chips missed from their bodies, and not a single one of them had any facial features remaining on their head. "The perfect hiding place!" finished the Doctor.

"Well I guess this makes it a bit trickier!" Octavian breathed.

"A bit yeah,"

"A stone Angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for..."

"Needle in a haystack..." whispered River.

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of... statues. No, yours was fine."

"Right," Octavian announced, taking a deep breath. "Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for; complete visual inspection. One question. How do we fight it?"

"We find it! And hope!" the Doctor strode into the fray, walking amongst the statues himself. Alex quickly pursued him, followed by Amy.

"So what are these things for?" Alex asked the Doctor, knocking on the forehead of one of the statues.

"Decoration. Apparently, for every Aplan buried, they built a commemorative statue of that person. I did like the Aplans, marvellous race. Shame they all died."

"Oh. Sorry," Alex whispered to the statue. He jogged to catch up the Doctor who was ducking under a particularly low-hanging piece of rock.

"Now that's interesting!" the Doctor said, taking out one of River's machines and scanning a rock-face with it.

"What is?" asked Alex. He glanced over and saw that River had caught them up and was talking to Amy. River had what looked like a syringe in her arm.

"Oh, y'know. This... wall. It's very... interesting,"

"You're a terrible liar," Alex chuckled.

"OW!" Amy's voice floated over to them. River seemed to have injected her arm with the syringe.

"What was that for?" Alex asked, nodding over to the syringe in River's hand.

"No idea," the Doctor replied, not even glancing over. "Sorry, can you stand the other side of me? You're blocking my light," he asked, ushering Alex to his other side with his hand. Alex glanced up and saw that there was light coming at them from all angles. If anything, he was blocking more light on this side. Regardless, the Doctor seemed incredibly interested in the readings he was getting from the machine. Alex could make neither head nor tale of them. The Doctor took his torch from his pocket and examined the rock face exceptionally closely. A new torch beam fell across them.

"Yes we are," River called over to them.

"Sorry, what?" the Doctor sounded rather bored, typing into the machine.

"Talking about you!"

"I wasn't listening, I'm busy."

"Ah... the other way up."

The Doctor looked at the machine for a moment before realising his mistake. He turned it around. What Alex had assumed were strange alien numbers and letters were simply human numbers and letters upside-down.

"Anything interesting then?" Alex asked happily, as the Doctor sheepishly put the machine into his back pocket.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," replied the Doctor, striding ahead, further into the labyrinth. Alex tried to follow but was stopped by River.

"Ah," she said, grabbing his arm. "I need to immunise your body too." River pulled out another syringe from her pocket and readied it, placing a head onto it.

"And what's it for?" asked Alex suspiciously as he grudgingly rolled up his sleeve.

"It's a viro-stabiliser. Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn et cetera. I'd say it doesn't hurt, but you heard Amy shout out in pain didn't you?" Smiling, and without giving Alex a chance to protest, she plunged the needle deep into Alex's forearm.

"Argh!" he shouted in pain. The needle delved at least an inch into his arm and the burning sensation as the contents flooded his circulatory system was incredibly uncomfortable. "Is that necessary?" he asked irritably.

"Not unless you want to die a very painful death," River said, smiling, as she rubbed the puncture wound.

"So," Alex began, as the pain subsided. "How far back do we go?"

"For you or for me?" she asked enigmatically. Alex rolled his sleeve down and the pair strolled further into the cave, catching up to the Doctor and Amy. The Doctor seemed to be inspecting one of the statues now.

"Well obviously I know how far from my point of view. What about yours?"

"I remember the first time we met," River recalled fondly. "Well, the first time I met you. You swung into the room on a grappling hook and grabbed my hand. You flew me away to safety and took me to the Doctor. You were the real hero of the hour that first time, not him-"

"-Spoilers," Alex interrupted. "Right?"

"Right... Y'know, I think this is the youngest I've ever seen you,"

Alex shrugged. "You're right there,"

"Good! It means I get to meet you at least once more," she winked cheekily.

Her words were interrupted by the sounds of machine gun-fire being sprayed in the previous chamber. The Doctor jumped and led the other three back to the previous chamber, running. On arrival, they found a young soldier sheepishly lowering his gun as Octavian glared at him angrily. From what Alex could gather, the soldier had fired at one of the statues in a panic. The Doctor examined the damage done to the statue.

"Sorry, sorry," the soldier said apologetically. "I thought it looked at me..."

"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian asked him heatedly.

"... No sir,"

"No sir it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be _very_ good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of _decor_," replied Octavian, slightly patronisingly. This didn't go un-noticed.

"What's your name?" interrupted the Doctor when he'd finished with the statue.

"Bob, sir," the soldier was nervous.

"Ah, that's a great name, I love Bob!" cried the Doctor, eyes wide, grinning.

"It's a sacred name," explained Octavian. "We all have sacred names. They're given to us in the Church."

"Sacred Bob," summarised the Doctor. He placed a hand comfortingly on Bob's shoulder. "More like Scared Bob now, eh?" Bob confirmed his question. "Ah good! Scared keeps you fast, anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron," the Doctor shifted his eyes to Octavian as he spoke, before clapping both men on the shoulder. "Carry on." The Doctor walked away from Bob and Octavian, who had a whispered conversation. Bob seemed most relieved at whatever was said.

"Was that really necessary?" Alex asked as the Doctor rejoined him and the others.

"What?"

"Calling Octavian a moron?"

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes!" announced Octavian to the small group of twelve.

Alex walked over to Bob as he took up a position at the entrance to the maze, ready to guard it. "You gonna be okay?" Alex asked, smiling warmly.

"Yes sir. Safest place at the entrance sir," Bob returned the smile.

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, good point. If anyone's going to survive this, it's you. The ladder out's just there too!" he pointed towards the rope ladder still descending from the hole in the roof. "Well, if you need anything, we're only on the end of a radio,"

"Alex?" called the Doctor. He glanced round and noticed Octavian had already climbed through the entrance in the wall, and soldiers were beginning to scramble in after him. Alex bade farewell to Bob and joined the Doctor at the end of the queue.

T I M E O F A N G E L S

"Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse?" asked Amy as the group entered a new chamber of the maze. "There's a whole ship up there!"

They'd been walking for about ten minutes. Although the views were very impressive, Alex thought, they were all pretty much the same. It had soon got boring, and Alex was almost beginning to wish he'd agreed to wait in the TARDIS.

"Incredible builders, the Aplans," River assured her.

"Had dinner with their chief architect once. Two heads are better than one,"

"You helped build this place?" Alex asked, shining his torch into the blank face of yet another statue to see if it was any different. It wasn't.

"No, I mean he had two heads. River, that book, the very end. What did it say?"

"Uh... hang on," she replied as she rummaged through her bag and pulled out an old book. River had explained to Alex that it was a sort of diary, written by one of the last survivors of whatever it was that had wiped out the Aplan race. It was about the Weeping Angels.

"Read it to me,"

River found the correct passage and read aloud. "'What if one day we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day, our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time till be upon us; The Time of Angels...'"

It was certainly mysterious. "And that means..?" Alex asked.

"No idea, I'm thinking about it," the Doctor replied rather bluntly. "Don't mention it again, it'll come to me." The Doctor led them further into the maze.

"Are we there yet?" Amy asked childishly as they crossed a wooden bridge over a small ravine.

Alex laughed. "You have no idea how much you sounded like Karen then," he told her, referring to his sister.

"What?" she replied defensively. "It's a hell of a climb!"

"The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul... only two levels to go."

"And then what? Heaven?" joked Alex.

"Well..." thought River. "There'll certainly be an Angel..."

"Speaking of which, we still haven't discussed how we're going to bring the Angel in," Octavian reminded them.

"Told you Bishop, we hope! You're a religious man, have some faith!" the Doctor called cheerfully.

"Sir, regardless of our mission, this is a place of death, and should be treated in that way," Octavian reprimanded him.

They emerged into yet another chamber, almost identical to the one before it. "Right, yes. Sorry. Lovely species though, the Aplans. Very relaxed. Sort of cheerful! But that's having two heads for you; you're never short of a snog with an extra head."

"Two heads..." Alex repeated to himself thoughtfully. He shone his torch into the face of yet another statue. Face. Singular.

"Doctor, there's something, I don't know what it is," River began.

"Yeah, there's something wrong," the Doctor agreed. "Don't know what it is yet either - working on it. Of course, then they started having laws against self-marriage, what's that about? But that's the Church for you," the Doctor turned and came face-to-face with Octavian. "No offence, um, Bishop..." he assured him awkwardly.

"Quite a lot taken, if that's alright Doctor,"

"Doctor!" Alex called out suddenly. "I know what's wrong, I know what you're missing!" He ran to catch up with the Doctor near the front of the group.

"What is it?" the Doctor shone his bright torch into Alex's face in interest.

"Okay," he said, breathlessly. "You said the Aplans have two heads, yeah?" The Doctor nodded impatiently. "Okay, well then." Alex turned and pointed his torch at one of the statues. He pointed a finger mockingly at the head of it. "One..." he moved his finger to where a second head would be. "Tw- Oh!"

"Oh," River realised, ominously.

"What is it?" Amy asked, confused.

"If the Aplans had two heads..." Alex said quietly to the Doctor. His eyes were wide in horror. He nodded.

"How could we not notice that?" River asked furiously.

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick!" the Doctor cried, standing inches in front of one of the statues and staring at where its eyes would be. "Alex, you're getting rather good at seeing through perception filters."

"What's wrong sir?" Octavian asked, he and the others still confused as to the problem.

"Nobody move," the Doctor commanded. "Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry, I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger..."

"What danger?"

"The Aplans," River began.

"The Aplans?"

"They had two heads," Alex elaborated.

"Yes, I get that! So?"

"So why don't the statues?" the Doctor concluded. Octavian's eyes also widened as he understood. The Doctor shone his torch into a dark, secluded corner of the cave. "Everyone over there. Just move. Don't ask questions and don't speak."

Alex, Amy, River, Octavian and the soldiers all hurried over to the corner. The Doctor backed towards them, keeping his eyes and torch on the back of the head of one of the statues, which was facing away from them.

"Okay. I want you all to turn off your torches."

"Sir?" Octavian questioned.

"Just do it," the Doctor commanded. Alex quickly acquiesced, followed by Amy and River. Octavian and the soldiers were slower to comply. They stood in almost pitch darkness. Only the Doctor's torch illuminated the chamber. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

River wasn't confident. "Are you sure about this?"

"No," he replied quietly. He stared at the Angel, as if readying himself for it. Alex backed up slightly and took a deep breath. After what seemed like days, the Doctor shut off his torch. He flicked it back on after less than a second.

"Oh my God..!" Amy muttered. "They've moved."

Alex was speechless. The statue which had, seconds ago, had its back to them, had now turned towards the group. All of the other statues appeared to have turned in their direction too, and suddenly now had eye- and mouth-holes. The rest of the group flicked their torches on quickly and aimed them all around. The Doctor ran forward through them, shining his torch into the faces of each and every statue he passed. They had all moved or changed position. Alex left the group and sprinted after the Doctor.

"Alex!" River cried, chasing after him. Amy followed suit.

"They're Angels," the Doctor declared, shining his torch at another of the statues. This particular one was crouching down in the middle of the path, reaching towards them in earnest. Of course, it wasn't moving. "All of them!"

"They can't be," River maintained, waving her torch around.

"Clerics, keep watching them," the Doctor ordered as he circled around the statue on the floor and ran through the cave archway into a new chamber. The ones here seemed to have come towards them too. "Every statue in this maze, every single one is a Weeping Angel. And they're coming after us."

Alex looked around. There were statues on every side. "We can't watch them all," he whispered. "Why haven't they got us yet?"

"They must be looking at each other," the Doctor theorised. "But they'll organise themselves soon enough; we've got to get out of here. Bishop!" he called into the previous chamber. They hurried into the next room and joined them, guns and torches aimed all around.

"But there was only one Angel on the ship, just the one, I _swear_!"

"Could they've been here already?"

"The Aplans," the Doctor asked, shining his torch at River. "What happened? How did they die out?"

"Nobody knows,"

"We know,"

"That explains why they wrote that book on the Angels then?" asked Alex. The Doctor nodded thoughtfully.

"But they don't look like Angels," Octavian pointed out.

"And they're not fast. You said they were fast! They should've had us by now,"

The Doctor turned his torch to one of the Angels reaching for them, lying on the floor. Its face barely constituted a face, with simple holes in its upper face for eyes and a slight bump for a nose. There didn't seem to be any mouth at all. "Like I said, they've probably been looking at each other. And anyway, look at them they're dying, losing their form. They must've been down here for centuries, starving."

"Losing their image?"

"And their image is their power." The Doctor stood up slowly, realisation hitting him. "Power," he repeated. He clapped and jumped up slightly. "_Power_! Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out of the drive burn. The crash of the Byzantium wasn't an accident; it was a rescue mission! The Angels. We're in the middle of an army! And it's waking up."

"We need to get out of here. Fast."

"We can't go back though, we passed hundreds of statues," Alex pointed out.

"I've got men by the entrance," Octavian reminded them. "They can send for back-up." He took out his radio and spoke into it. "Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in please." Silence. "Any of you? Come in?" he asked frantically.

"It's Bob sir!" replied a voice, finally. "Sorry sir."

"Bob. Are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat; all the statues are active,"

"I know sir. Angelo and Christian are dead sir. The statues killed them sir."

At this, the Doctor yanked the radio out of Octavian's hand and spoke into it. "Bob. Sacred Bob. It's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?"

"I'm talking on that," protested Octavian.

"Yep, yep, yep. Shut up," the Doctor silenced him.

"I'm on my way up to you sir. I'm homing in on your signal."

"He'll never make it," Alex muttered to Amy. She shook her head grimly. The Doctor however seemed more hopeful.

"Ah well done Bob! Scared keeps you fast, told you didn't I? Your friends Bob, what did the Angel do to them?"

"Snapped their necks sir," replied Bob ominously.

The Doctor frowned and paced slightly. "See, that's not how the Angels kill you. They displace you in time, unless they need the bodies for something..."

Octavian stole the radio back from the Doctor. "Bob. Did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue mission-"

"Oh, don't be an idiot!" cried the Doctor, snatching the radio back. "The Angels don't leave you alive! Bob, keep running! But tell me. How did you escape?"

"I didn't escape sir." Collective frowns of confusion all round. "The Angel killed me too sir," Bob elaborated. No-one spoke, everyone exchanging looks.

"What d'you mean, the Angel killed you too?" the Doctor finally asked.

"Snapped my neck sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something," Bob replied, not a hint of sorrow or distress in his voice.

"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"

"You're not talking to me sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and reanimated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion." That explained that.

"So when you say _you're_ on the way up to us..."

"It's the Angel that's coming sir. Yes."

"No way out!" the Doctor said, frustrated.

"We'd never have made it that way anyway," Alex told him. The Doctor shrugged, agreeing.

"We can get out through the wreckage! Go!" Octavian shouted, pointing through another stone arch.

"Go, go, go," the Doctor agreed, waving them all away. Amy looked ready to want to stay with the Doctor. Knowing the Doctor wouldn't want her to, Alex took Amy by the arm and pulled her away, following River and the soldiers. They jogged through a low tunnel and emerged out onto another wooden bridge.

"The Byzantium should be through here!" Octavian called, running into a low tunnel. The soldiers followed him through, with Alex right behind them.

"Alex!" Amy called.

Alex turned back to Amy to find her standing still, leaning on one of the barriers on the side of the bridge. Alex glanced behind her to see a number of statues, closing in. "No time for a breather!" he told her exasperatedly.

"I can't move," she told him, scared.

"What, you're _tired_?" Alex cried, shining his torch into the faces of the statues behind Amy. She made no effort to join him at the arch as his torch began to flicker.

"No, I literally, physically, can't move!"

"Why not?"

"Don't wait for me, go! Run!" the Doctor told them as he ran past, having caught up with them.

"Apparently, she can't!" Alex told him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Why not?"

"Look at my hand! It's stone!"

Alex and the Doctor looked down at her hands. One was swinging freely by her side, half-concealed by her long sleeve. The other was resting on the bridge. Although she didn't seem to be able to move it, it certainly wasn't stone. Why would it be?

"It's not stone," Alex pointed out, poking it. Amy's skin delved slightly, very obviously flesh.

"Yes it is! Look at it! It's grey, and hard, and I can't move it!"

The Doctor shone his torch into Amy's eyes. "You looked into the eyes of an Angel didn't you?"

"I couldn't stop myself, I tried,"

"Why didn't you come behind it, with me?" Alex asked. He was now standing with his back to the Doctor and Amy, staring with all his might at the eerie statues that seemed to be getting closer.

"I had to stay near the door to keep trying to open it,"

"The door was deadlocked, there was no way out," the Doctor told her irritably. "Listen to me, it's messing with you head. Your hand is not made of stone-"

"-It is! Look at it!"

"Amy, trust me, that's skin!" Alex called over his shoulder.

"It's messing with your mind, I promise you. You can move that hand, you can let go."

"I can't. Okay? I've tried and I can't! It's stone!"

"Can't we pull it off?"

"What and snap my wrist off?"

"It's not stone, Amy!"

The torches flickered again, more violently. Alex backed up so he could both watch the statues and talk to Amy and the Doctor.

"The Angel is gonna come. And it's gonna turn these lights off and then there's nothing we can do to stop it, so do it. Concentrate. Move your hand."

"I can't."

"Move the hand, Amy!"

"I can't!"

"Then we're all gonna die."

"You two won't die!"

"Amy, they're taking the torches out," Alex reminded her, shaking it to keep it lit.

"Just go. Run. You've got to go, both of you. You know you have. You've got all that stuff with River and that's all gotta happen! You both know you can't die here!"

"Time can be rewritten, it doesn't work like that."

The lights flashed off completely. The statues gained another metre or two.

"Amy, they're coming. They'll take the lights. So just move your hand, we can get out through the wreckage. None of us die."

"Just go, both of you! I don't need you to die for me, do I look that clingy?"

"Move your hand!" the Doctor and Alex cried simultaneously.

"It's _stone_!"

The statues advanced another metre or so.

"It's _not_ stone!"

"You've gotta go. Those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me you'll have good as killed them."

"Doctor, she's right. You go, I'll stay with her," Alex offered, half hating himself. "We'll see you up there."

"Oh Amy Pond, you are magnificent, and I'm sorry" the Doctor whispered, leaning on her compassionately.

"It's okay. I understand," Amy replied. "You've gotta leave me,"

"I'm staying, Amy," Alex assured her. She smiled sadly.

"No, I'm not leaving you two, never. I'm sorry about this!"

The Doctor swooped down and sunk his teeth into Amy's bare, fleshy hand. She shrieked out in pain and held it in her other hand, surprising Alex and causing him to lose concentration. The statues progressed a little further.

"See, not stone! Now run!" the Doctor yelled, turning back to face the statues.

"You bit me!" said Amy, sounding more affronted then terrified.

"You _bit_ her?" Alex laughed, not having seen it.

"Yeah, and we're alive," he told them.

"Look, I've got a mark!" she shoved her hand in front of Alex's nose.

"Yes and we're alive, did I mention?" he cried. He seized Amy and Alex by their clothes and pulled them back towards the tunnel.

"Blimey, your teeth! Have you got Space Teeth?"

"Yeah, alive. All I'm saying." Without another word, the Doctor pushed his two companions into the tunnel and, taking one last look at the statues, followed them through it. They travelled through a number of surprisingly statue-less rooms.

"Guessing they left here to come to us," Alex supposed as they went through them. The Doctor nodded.

"Clerics, we're done to four men," Octavian's voice floated into the chamber, alerting them to the fact that they had arrived at the Byzantium. "Expect incoming."

"Yeah, it's the Angels," the Doctor told them, striding into the room. "They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves.

Though the torches and gravity globe were flickering constantly now, Alex could easily see the vast, impossible spaceship lodged into the roof of the cave. It was hard to comprehend the size of it. And this was just the tip of the ship; the majority of it stuck into the sky outside. The chamber was enormous too, the ship at least fifty feet up.

"Which means we won't be able to see them," infered Octavian.

"Which means we can't stay here,"

"More incoming!" cried a solider guarding one of the entrances to the chamber. Two statues had appeared at the end of the passage.

"Any suggestions?" River asked the Doctor hopefully.

"The statues are advancing on all sides, and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium."

"No way up, no way back, no way out," summarised River. "No pressure, but this is usually when you have a _really_ good idea!" she told the Doctor.

"There's always a way out," he whispered thoughtfully. The lights flashed again. "There's always a way out!" he repeated.

"Doctor?" Bob's voice rang out eerily. "Can I speak to the Doctor please?"

The Doctor took the radio out of his inside pocket. "Hello Angels. What's your problem?"

"Your power will not last much longer. And the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry sir."

"...Why are you telling me this?"

"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end. And your friend Alex."

"Which is?"

"I died in fear. You told me my fear would keep me alive. Your friend told me I'd be the safest of us all. But I died afraid, in pain and alone. You both made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down. Sorry sirs. The Angels were very keen for you both to know that."

Alex wiped moisture away from his eye. He had indeed told Bob that if anyone was going to survive, it would be him.

"Well then," the Doctor stammered, his tone of voice emulating Alex's feelings. "The Angels have made their second mistake, because I'm not gonna let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier." Alex nodded emphatically.

"But you're trapped sir. And about to die."

"Yeah, trapped. And y'know what? This trap's got a great big mistake in it! Great, big, whopping mistake!"

"What mistake sir?" asked not-Bob.

The Doctor took the radio away from his mouth and turned to Amy. "Trust me?"

"Yeah."

"Trust me?"

"Always," replied River.

"Trust me?"

"'Til the end of Time," Alex smiled.

The Doctor smiled and turned to Octavian and the soldiers. "You lot, trust me?"

No-one replied at first. "Sir! Two more incoming!" one called.

"We have faith sir," Octavian confirmed, nodding.

"Then give me your gun," the Doctor ordered, pointing at the handgun in Octavian's holster.

The Doctor examined it as he spoke. "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do: jump!" he emphasized his point by jumping once on the spot.

"Jump where?"

"No, just jump, high as you can. Come on! Leap of faith Bishop! On my signal!"

"What signal?"

"You won't miss it!" the Doctor aimed the fully-loaded handgun into the air at, as far as Alex could tell, nothing in particular.

"Sorry, can I ask again? You mentioned a mistake we'd made?" Bob's voice asked, far too polite to be being used by sadistic monsters.

"Oh big, big mistake, really huge. Didn't anyone ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence. If you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, _ever_ put in a trap."

"And what would that be sir?"

Silence. Then, eventually: "Me."

The Doctor fired.


	19. Flesh and Stone: One

_Unfortunately (for me, and I hope for you!), this'll be the last part for around 3 weeks. I'll see how much of part 2 I can get done, but I doubt I'll be able to get it uploaded for some time. Most likely around the date The Impossible Astronaut airs! Now isn't that something to look forward to? Right, enjoy. As always, reviews would be wonderful!_

Flesh and Stone – Part One

_Crunch._

Alex groaned and sat up. He'd landed awkwardly, somehow crushing his left arm and right leg with his own body. At the same time.

"Up! Look up!" said the Doctor's frantic voice, already up and running.

"Ohh, my head," Alex grumbled as he staggered to his feet, rubbing his forehead. He glanced around and noticed Amy still lying on the floor too. The soldiers seemed to have been quicker off the mark.

"Look up!" the Doctor repeated to him, running past him and scanning a light on the floor with the Screwdriver.

"Where are we?" Amy muttered.

"We jumped!"

"Jumped where?"

"Up, up! Look up!" the Doctor repeated again.

Alex finally complied. He gazed through the darkness, squinting, and suddenly realised what he was looking at. Though it was from a different perspective, this was almost undoubtedly the chamber that the ship had crashed into. There were statues and Angels alike up on the ceiling. Which meant, Alex thought, looking at what he was standing on, this must be...

"The Byzantium!" he cried, working it out.

"Exactly!" cried the Doctor, as he bent down and used the Sonic on the hatch on the tip of the Byzantium.

"Wh- sorry? What about the Byzantium?" Amy stammered, totally confused.

"Why are the Angels on the roof? And why's the Byzantium stuck into the floor and why... just why? I'm lost."

"Oh come on you two," the Doctor said, standing between Alex and Amy. "The ship crashed with the power still on yeah? So what else is still on?"

"The grav...," Alex said slowly. "So _we're_ on the ceiling?"

"The artificial gravity. One good jump and up we fell," the Doctor explained, emphasizing his point with a little hop on the spot. "Shot out the grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are!"

"I feel sick," Alex muttered, still looking up – or down, rather – at the Angels on the floor.

"Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now." Octavian was also looking up/down, aiming his gun at the ceiling/floor. Alex looked closer and realised that he was right. Many had regained their facial features and some had begun to sprout wings.

"They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, drawing the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, there'll be an army," the Doctor explained hurriedly. He finished his work as the hatch he'd been working on released. One of the lights blew out as the hatch opened, followed by another. "They're taking out the lights! Look at them, look at the Angels."

Another light blew. Alex made a quick calculation. "Four left. We've got seconds,"

"In the ship now, quickly, all of you!" the Doctor called. He lowered himself into the hatch.

"Doctor! That corridor's about fifty feet long!" The Doctor let go. "Doctor!" cried Amy and Alex simultaneously.

"It's just a corridor," the Doctor's voice told them patronisingly. Looking inside, they saw that he was now standing at right-angles to them, as if he were standing on the wall. "The gravity orientates to the floor! Now, in here, all of you, don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move."

Another light went out, leaving three left. And another. Two.

"Go, Amy," Alex told her, pushing her slightly. She took and deep breath and jumped inside.

"Inside, Mr Morgan," Octavian ordered, still aiming his gun at the Angels.

The penultimate light burst. Alex quickly lowered himself inside and dropped. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of his life. For less than a second, he plummeted downwards, before stopping suddenly and plonking downwards onto the metal floor on his back, completely unharmed.

"Okay men, go, go, go," commanded Octavian's voice from outside as Alex picked himself up. The four soldiers, River and Octavian poured in at a much faster speed than either Alex or Amy. Evidently, the final light had blown. "The Angels, presumably they can jump up here?" Octavian asked the Doctor once he'd got up off of his back.

The Doctor used the Sonic on a nearby control panel, sealing the hatch once again. "They're here," he told them simply. "Now. In the dark we're finished." A harsh beeping alarm sounded, prompting the Doctor to jump and plough through the group down the corridor. "No, no!" he cried in earnest as their section of corridor was sealed off by a thick, wrought-iron door.

"This whole place is a death-trap!" Octavian shouted, following him.

"No, it's a time-bomb!" he corrected, banging and sonicing the door. "Well, it's a death-trap and a time-bomb. And now it's a dead-end. Nobody panic." No-one spoke. Heavy grinding noises sounded outside of the hatch. "Oh, just me then. What's through there?"

"Secondary flight deck," River told him.

"Okay, so we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So what if the gravity fails?"

"I've thought about that," the Doctor reassured Amy.

"And?"

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it."

"Look, is there a way through?" Alex interrupted.

"Maybe," River replied, fiddling with wires in a panel on the wall. "We'll need to reroute the power in this section to the door control,"

"You can't. There's no way to override the security protocols; they're still live. It's impossible."

"How impossible?"

"Two minutes,"

Ominously, the lights in the corridor failed completely. The hatch at the end of it disappeared as it was ripped from its position.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing,"

"Sir! Incoming!" called a soldier.

The Doctor, after heavy sonicing of wires, managed to reboot the lights. Alex looked around and nearly had a heart attack. Four almost fully-formed Angels stood at the end of the corridor, their stone eyes gazing down it. All had faces, wings and arms and were now undoubtedly Weeping Angels.

"Clerics, keep watching them," Octavian warned.

"And don't look at their eyes. Anywhere else, not the eyes. Right, I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now."

"Good work Doctor."

"Yes, good, good, good. Good in many ways, good you like it so far,"

"Why, what's the problem?" Alex asked, assisting the clerics and keeping his eyes rooted on the base of one of the Angels.

"Well, there's only one way to open this door. Like River said, reroute all the power in this section through the door control..."

"Good, fine. Do it."

"Except?"

"Including the lights. All of them. I'll need to turn out the lights."

A bleak silence followed. Eventually, Octavian broke it. "How long for?"

"Fraction of a second, maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer," he said, rubbing his chin in thought and desperation.

"_Maybe_?"

"Well, I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship; there isn't a manual for this!"

"Doctor, we lost the torches, we'll be in total darkness!" Amy cried.

"You need every last bit of power?" Alex whispered.

"Every last bit. No other way. Bishop."

Octavian thought for a moment and turned to River, who stopped working on the wired panel and faced him. "Doctor Song, I've lost good clerics today. You trust this man?"

"I absolutely trust him," she replied immediately.

"He's not some kind of madman then?"

Beat. "I absolutely trust him," River repeated. The Doctor smiled fondly and patted her on the shoulder.

"Can't we use this?" Alex asked the Doctor as he turned back to the door. He'd taken his mobile phone out of his jeans pocket.

"Look at it, it'll be completely dead. They're drawing all the power they can," the Doctor replied, back to sonicing the controls. Alex pressed a few buttons at random and realised the Doctor was right; despite him having charged it less than two hours ago, its battery power was nonexistent.

"Okay Doctor. We've got your back," Octavian announced.

"Bless you Bishop," the Doctor smiled.

"Sorry, what's the plan?" Alex asked, as Amy shrugged.

"Combat distance: 10 feet. As soon as the lights go down, continuous fire. Full spread over the hostiles, do not stop firing while the lights are out. Shotgun protocol. We don't have bullets to waste."

The nature of the plan dawned on Alex as Octavian commanded his troops authoritatively. It was an incredibly risky plan.

"Alex," the Doctor asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. "You two, when the lights go down, the wheel should release. Spin it clockwise four times,"

"Ten," Amy corrected.

"No, four. Four times."

"Yeah, four. I heard you."

"Why'd you say ten?" Alex asked as they both placed their hands firmly on the turning wheel.

"Ready!" the Doctor called out before she could respond. He placed the Screwdriver into the panel and waited.

"On my count then," called Octavian. The anticipation was unbearable. "God be with us all. Three. Two. One. _Fire_!"

Precisely as Octavian's final word fell, the lights went with it. The machine gun-fire was deafening in the confined corridor. The sparks of light temporarily lit up the advancing Angels for less than a second. Alex and Amy heaved on the wheel on the door, just being able to hear the heavy tumblers shifting inside above the cacophony. After what seemed like a century, the door slowly began to shift."

"It's working, it's opening!" Amy cried in relief.

Alex laughed. "River, get through," he told her as the gap widened enough to allow a person to step through it. She did as he told her. Alex wordlessly pushed Amy towards the gap too.

"Fall back!" shouted Octavian, walking backwards towards the door.

"Alex, get through!" the Doctor bellowed, surprised he hadn't already gone.

Alex didn't need telling twice and slipped through the narrow gap. The soldiers followed, with the Doctor next and Octavian bringing up the rear. The door slid shut and they found themselves once more in a fully-lit corridor. Not wasting any time, the Doctor sprinted up this one to the next door and soniced the controls. This one opened with little difficulty, but again, only enough for a person to squeeze through. The Doctor seemed to have to keep the Screwdriver on the control constantly for the door to stay open.

"Doctor, quickly," River called as Octavian and the clerics checked the room to ensure its safety. Alex and Amy slipped through the gap.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted.

The sound of the Screwdriver stopped and the Doctor hurried through the quickly-closing gap, seconds before it slammed shut. They found themselves in a relatively large, rounded room. There were three circular doors leading into the room, and a large, flat wall at the other end. The centrepiece of the room was a semi-circular console, laden with wires and controls, and three chairs spaced around it. The Doctor ran round to look at them, joining River who was already attempting to work them out.

"Doctor!" Amy cried again, as an echoing bang sounded, a heavy pounding on one of the doors alerting them to the Angels' presence. The turning wheel was rotating quickly. Octavian hastily knelt down beside it and took out a small brown device. He placed it just above the turning wheel and pressed a button. It beeped and the wheel stopped moving.

"What's that?" Alex asked, as the Doctor pressed some buttons at random.

"It magnetises the door. Nothing could turn that wheel now."

"Yeah?" the Doctor asked, smiling slightly. As if on cue, the wheel turned slightly, with a loud bang. The Angels were forcing it to turn, slowly.

Octavian flinched and turned to stare at the haltingly turning wheel in horror. "Dear God!"

"Ah, now you're getting it! It's bought us time though, that's good. I am good with time!" the Doctor picked up tangled wires at random and soniced them.

The wheel began to turn on the second door in the room, seemingly quicker; obviously the Angels were keen to open it as far as possible before the magnet was deployed.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted a third time.

"Seal that door, seal it now!" Octavian ordered frantically. A soldier hurriedly obeyed. The second wheel also began to move loudly, but slowly. The third wheel began to spin swiftly. "Seal it, seal that door!" commanded Octavian again.

"They've got us on all sides," Alex whispered, glancing around for a fourth exit. As far as he could see, there wasn't one.

"Doctor," Octavian asked breathlessly. "How long have we got?"

"Five minutes max," he replied, quickly typing on a keyboard.

"Nine," Amy said.

"Five," the Doctor corrected immediately, looking slightly confused.

"Five, right, yeah,"

"Why'd you say nine?"

"I didn't..?"

The wheels were turning harsher and faster now. "Doctor, you isolated the light in that corridor. Can you do it for one of these?" Alex asked, interrupting.

"No, this is the secondary flight deck; we'd need the primary one. Which is where we need to get to escape."

"There's no way there though," pointed out Octavian.

"Yeah there is, 'course there is! This is a Galaxy Class Ship, goes years between planet-fall, so! What do they need?" the Doctor asked the group. Amy looked blank, while Alex shrugged.

River on the other hand, gasped and understood. "Of course!" The Doctor grinned and clicked his fingers in happiness.

"_What_ do they need?" Alex asked.

"'Of course' what?"

"Can we get in there?"

"Get in where?" asked Alex in exasperation. "Is it a way out?"

The Doctor turned to face the large, flat wall. "Well, it's a sealed unit but they must've installed it somehow," he said enigmatically. He placed his hands on the wall and put his head to it, as if listening through it. "This whole wall should slide up. There's clamps!" he cried happily, moving some boxes on wheels away from the wall to reveal small black clamp objects connecting the wall to the floor. "Release the clamps!" Without waiting for assistance, the Doctor took out the Screwdriver and soniced all four clamps, releasing them.

"What's through there? What do they need?" asked Amy.

"They need to breathe," explained River.

The wall slowly, ceremoniously rose. Light bathed them all as the wall unveiled what lay behind it. Alex's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in surprise. He frowned, confused. Behind the wall, impossibly, was a forest. A forest on a spaceship. For as far as the eye could see, tall, green trees dwarfed everything else around them. There were also a number of bushes and smaller plants, along with soil and some grass and twigs on the floor. Some sort of steam billowed through the trees eerily.

"But that's..." Amy began, apparently also struggling to put her thoughts into words. "That's..." she tried again.

"It's an oxygen factory," River finished.

"It's a forest!" Alex and Amy chorused.

"Yeah, it's a forest," agreed River. "It's an oxygen factory,"

"And, if we're lucky, an escape route..."

Amy and Alex exchanged looks and both chuckled. "Eight," she said.

"What?" Alex asked, turning his head back to her in puzzlement.

"Nothing?" she replied, also confused.

"Is there another exit?" the Doctor butted in. "Scan the architecture; we don't have time to get lost in there,"

Octavian hurried into the forest and took out a machine. "On it." He pressed a button or two. "Stay where you are until I've checked the RAD levels," he ordered as the small machine emitted continuous beeping noises.

"But trees? On a spaceship?" Amy asked incredulously, laughing.

The Doctor strolled forward into the forest, completely ignoring Octavian's order. "Oh better than trees. Way better than trees. You're gonna _love_ this. Treeborgs!" The Doctor seized a patch of moss on the base of one of the trees and pulled. It easily slipped away to reveal, not dull, brown bark as Alex expected, but a jumble of wires and lights integrated into the tree's trunk. They seemed to travel all the way up it. "Trees plus technology!" he explained happily.

"How is that even possible?" asked Alex, also laughing. He walked to where the Doctor stood and peered inside the hole. Bright lights lit up the hollow interior, and electrical buzzing filled the air.

"Branches become cables become sensors on the hull. A forest! Sucking in starlight," – Alex noted that the roof to the vast room was transparent – "and breathing out air. It even rains! There's a whole mini-climate! This vault is an eco-pod running through the heart of the ship!" He jumped back inside the flight deck. "Mr Morgan, Miss Pond. A forest in a bottle, on a spaceship in a maze. Have I impressed you yet?"

"Did that a long time ago," Alex assured him, grinning as he replaced the patch of moss on the treeborg.

Amy laughed again. "Seven," she grinned.

Alex looked over in confusion. The Doctor looked anxious. "Seven?"

"I'm sorry what?"

The Doctor walked to her and faced her up close. "You said seven," he told her, scanning her face.

"No I didn't!" she denied.

"Yes you did," River told her, still standing at the console.

"You did," Alex confirmed, returning to the flight deck and nodding assuredly.

Octavian spoke up. "Doctor, there's an exit. Far end of the ship, leads to the primary flight deck."

"Ah good. That's where we need to go,"

"Plotting a safe path now,"

"Quick as you like." The Doctor's eyes never left Amy's face, apparently hoping for an answer or idea to pop out of her face.

"Doctor?" enquired an eerie, yet courteous voice. "Excuse me? Hello Doctor? A-Angel Bob here sir." The Doctor reached into his inside jacket pocket and took out the radio. He sat down in one of the chairs comfortably and began spinning on it slightly. River began to work on the console again, while Alex and Amy leant on it, listening to the conversation.

"Ah, there you are, Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry! Bad subject."

"The Angels were wondering what you hoped to achieve?" Bob asked, emotionless as ever.

"Achieve? We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging," the Doctor smiled and put his feet up, rotating on the chair slightly. "It's nice in here: consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?"

"The Angels are feasting sir. Soon we'll be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel. This world and all the stars and the worlds beyond..."

"Well. We've got comfy chairs, did I mention?"

"We have no need of comfy chairs,"

The Doctor grinned and took the radio away from his mouth. "I made him say 'comfy chairs'" he told the others happily.

Amy laughed again. "Six." This prompted another look of confusion and bewilderment from Alex and River.

The Doctor leapt from his seat. "Okay Bob, enough chat, here's what I wanna know: What've you done to Amy?"

"There's something in her eye," Bob informed them readily. Alex glanced at Amy worriedly, who frowned.

"What's in her eye?" the Doctor asked.

"We are."

"What's he talking about?" Amy asked, getting up from the console. "Doctor I'm five!" Amy seemed to realise something. She noted the continued looks from River and Alex. She shook her head. "I- I mean five... Fine! I'm fine."

"You're counting," River realised.

"Counting?"

"You're counting down, from ten, you have been for a couple of minutes."

"Yeah. Back in the corridor, you said ten when he said four," Alex recalled.

"And then nine minutes instead of five," the Doctor continued. He kept gazing into Amy's eyes.

"Why can't I remember any of that?" Amy whispered, scared. No-one replied. "Counting down to what?"

"I don't know," came the Doctor's whispered reply.

"We shall take her," Bob explained. "We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space."

The Doctor threw himself back onto the chair. "Get a life Bob. Oops! Sorry again. There's power on this ship but nowhere _near_ that much."

"With respect sir, there's more power on this ship than you yet understand."

A hideous, loud splitting noise sounded, followed by an even more hideous screeching sound, filling the entire room and causing everyone other than the Doctor to flinch and glance around.

"What is that? Dear God, what is it?" asked River anxiously. The squealing continued and was accompanied by renewed banging on the three doors.

"They're back!" cried Octavian.

"It's hard to put it in your terms Doctor Song." Bob sounded almost apologetic. "As best as I understand it, the Angels are laughing."

"_Laughing_?" the Doctor whispered into the radio harshly, after a moment or two.

"'Cos you haven't noticed yet sir. The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed."

"We should go," Alex spoke up, placing a hand on Amy's arm.

"Quite right," Octavian agreed. He held up a hand to the Doctor. "Doctor?"

"No! Wait. There's something I've..." The splitting noise reached a crescendo. Slowly, the Doctor turned and stared at the opposite wall in dismay. "... Missed."

Alex followed his gaze and adopted an equally horrified expression. There, a metre high and three metres long, positioned almost in the centre of the wall, light shining through it, was a large, very familiar crack in the wall.


	20. Flesh and Stone: Two

_First of all, I'd like to dedicate this chapter and entire story, now not only to Nicholas Courtney, but also to the fantastic Elisabeth Sladen, who passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. Terrible news, and my condolences go out to all those who knew her, both as Lis and Sarah-Jane. She will be missed by so many. RIP Lis._

_Wow, that was heavy. Anyway, welcome back! I finished this a few days back, but I had no way of uploading it to the site. I've also finished part three, which I'll probably upload in the next couple of days. Reviews would be phenomenal!_

Flesh and Stone – Part Two

The Doctor wheeled one of the large boxes over to the wall and gazed at the crack on the wall in horror. Alex and Amy ran after him.

"But, that's like the crack from my bedroom wall when I was a little girl!" cried Amy.

"Yes..." the Doctor confirmed, not taking his eyes from it.

"How is it here? It's exactly the same shape!" Before anyone could respond to Alex, the Byzantium began to shake violently. The chairs fell over and wires slipped from the console.

"Okay, enough. We're moving out," said Octavian authoritatively.

"Agreed," agreed River. "Doctor!" she ordered. Ignoring her, the Doctor climbed onto the wheeled box and took out the Sonic Screwdriver. "What are you doing?"

"I'll be right with you," he assured them, holding the Screwdriver to the glowing crack.

"We're not leaving you!"

"Doctor, we don't know what that thing is. It's followed us three thousand years into the future!"

"Maybe we followed it. Go, just go. Bishop?"

"Miss Pond, Mr Morgan, Doctor Song, now!" Octavian called over the racket, he and his men already tentatively taking steps beyond the tree line.

Alex took one last look at the Doctor. He knew he wasn't to be argued with. He seized Amy and River by the arms and steered them towards the forest. They complied and ran after Octavian and into the forest beyond.

"The primary flight deck is approximately a mile ahead of us. If we hurry, we should reach it and avoid the Angels' advance," Octavian told them as they walked. "From there, we will be able to send for- Miss Pond?"

Amy had stumbled and crashed into Octavian's back, knocking him off-kilter. "Sorry," she muttered, putting a hand to her forehead in pain.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. She nodded with closed eyes.

"Alex," River interrupted. "Go back for him. He doesn't know me well enough yet to listen to me. You might be able to convince him. It isn't safe there,"

Alex nodded and, taking one last look at Amy who was very obviously in a reasonable amount of pain, turned and jogged back towards the secondary flight deck. He arrived at the top of a hill and saw to his horror that at least twenty still-regenerating Angels were surrounding the Doctor, who had cried out in pain and surprise at the exact moment Alex had spotted the Angels.

"Why am I not dead then?" the Doctor asked the motionless Angels.

"Because I'm watching them," Alex told him as he trotted down the hill and back into the ship, consciously stopping himself from blinking.

"What are _you_ doing here? I told you to go!"

"I just saved your life!

"Right, yes. Thank you," he said, glancing around at the Angels. He was standing awkwardly as, Alex noticed, one of the Angels had him by the collar of his jacket. I don't think they were going to kill me though. Were you?" he asked the Angels. "Is that it? Is that the power that brought you here?" Bright white light was streaming out of the crack, despite that being the outer hull of the ship. "That's pure time energy, you can't feed on that. That's not power, that's the fire at the end of the universe." The Doctor caught Alex's eye, which was aimed at the crack. Those Angels who were not in view were also now gazing at it. The Doctor nodded his head very slightly towards the forest. Alex got the message. "And I'll tell you something else," he said as he slipped his arms out of his jacket sleeves. "Never let me talk!" he called over his shoulder as he and Alex raced into the forest and away from the Angels. The Doctor took the Screwdriver out of his trouser pocket and aimed it at the flight deck. The wall slid back downwards, hiding the Angels from view.

"Close one," Alex said cheerfully as they jogged dead ahead, following in the tracks of Amy, River, Octavian and the soldiers.

"I don't get how that crack is here. It's _exactly_ the same..."

"You said we followed it,"

"Well, like I said, it's pure time energy. Maybe the TARDIS subconsciously brought us to the crack,"

"River brought us here," Alex pointed out. The Doctor shrugged. They slowed as they arrived at a clearing and voices could be heard.

"Now if they're dead back there, I'll never forgive myself. And if they're alive, I'll never forgive _him_," River's voice carried up the small hill to where the Doctor and Alex stood. The Doctor grinned. "And you're both standing right behind me aren't you?"

"Oh yeah!" the Doctor smiled.

"I hate you," River shook her head, grimacing and turning to face the Doctor.

"You don't!" the Doctor told her as he and Alex jogged down the hill and into the clearing. "Bishop, the Angels are in the forest," he told Octavian as they jogged down the slope and into the clearing.

"We need visual contact on every line of approach," Octavian told his men. They quickly organized themselves, each standing on one side of the clearing.

"So what's wrong with her?" Alex asked River, kneeling down beside Amy who was lying on a rock, clasping her head in pain. River just shrugged, looking incredibly nervous. Alex sighed and rubbed Amy's arm comfortingly.

"What was the crack?" came a weak voice from beneath Amy's hair, which was covering her face.

"Light from the end of the universe," the Doctor responded as he took some sort of scanner from River. It was linked to Amy's arm. "Let's have a look then." Alex glanced over the Doctor's shoulder at the small screen. It showed what looked like Amy's heart rate, displaying 120 beats per minute. 119. 118. It was dropping, fast.

"So what's wrong with me?" she croaked.

"Nothing, you're fine," River reassured her.

"Everything, you're dying!" the Doctor announced morbidly.

"_Doctor_!" River reprimanded him as Alex looked up at him in annoyance.

"Yes, you're right! If we lie to her, she'll get all better!" he told them irritably, dumping the scanner onto the ground. "Right then. Amy, Amy, Amy. What's the matter with Amelia? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Doesn't mean anything." The Doctor spoke quickly, answering his own questions at speed.

"Doctor?" Amy whimpered.

"Busy," he replied simply.

"I'm scared,"

"Of course you're scared, you're dying. Shut up."

"Okay, let him think," River whispered to Amy as the Doctor got up and began to pace up and down. Amy extended her hand blindly, looking for reassurance. Alex took it and squeezed it comfortingly and was relieved to feel a return squeeze.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked himself. "She stared at the Angel, she looked into the eyes of an Angel for too long-"

"Sir, Angel! Incoming!" called one soldier.

"And 'ere," said another.

"Keep visual contact. Do not let it move," commanded Octavian. From Alex's position, he could see no Angels. He was sure the soldiers could handle it. In any case, Amy was holding tight onto his hand and was not letting go.

"Come on, come on, wakey wakey," said the Doctor, rubbing his head angrily. "She watched an Angel climb out of the screen, but then so did you, you're fine," he said, turning to Alex.

"I was behind it, remember?"

"Right, so you weren't looking at the eyes! So she stared at the Angel for too long and-"

"The image of an Angel is an Angel," Amy managed.

"A living mental image in a living human mind! We stare at them to stop them getting close to us; we don't even blink! And that is exactly what they want. 'Cos as long as our eyes are open they can climb inside – there's an Angel in her mind!" The Doctor covered his mouth in surprise as he worked it out. River gasped and Alex's eyes widened in horror. Amy didn't seem to be listening anymore, instead staring into space ahead of them.

"Three," she said in a monotone voice. "Doctor, it's coming. I can feel it. I'm gonna die!"

"Please just shut up, I'm thinking. Now, counting. What's that about? Bob?" the Doctor asked, standing up and speaking into the radio. "Why are they making her count?"

"To make her afraid, sir,"

"Okay, but why? What for?"

"For fun, sir." Bob's friendly voice sounded surprisingly sadistic. The Doctor growled and hurled the radio against a rock in anger, smashing it to pieces.

"Doctor, what's happening to me? Explain," Amy muttered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Erm. Inside your head, in the vision centres of your brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen. A virtual screen inside your mind and the Angel is climbing out of it and it's coming..." he paused, trying to find the right words. "To shut you off," he finished.

"Then what do I do?"

The Doctor sat up again. "If it was a real screen, what would we do? We'd pull the plug, we'd kill the power. But we can't knock her out; the Angel would just... take over!"

Amy's winced and grunted in pain. Her breathing became more laboured. Alex squeezed her hand. "You're gonna be fine," he assured her. "Okay?" Amy looked at him grudgingly and nodded.

"How though?" River asked the Doctor. "Fast?"

"We've got the shut down the vision centres of her brain! We've got to pull the plug! Starve the Angel!"

"Doctor, she's got seconds," River told them, looking at the Med Scanner.

"How would you starve your lungs?" the Doctor asked anxiously, frantically.

"I-I'd stop breathing," River replied, barely looking up.

"Amy, close your eyes!"

"No," Amy whispered, shaking her head slightly. "No, I don't want to..."

"Good!" the Doctor told her, dropping back down to her level. "Because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you. It's afraid. Do it! Close your eyes!"

Amy glanced around. She was met with nods of agreement from Alex and River. She sighed and eventually forced her eyes shut. River's machine beeped, the red screen turning green.

"She's normalising," River reported. "You did it!"

The Doctor just grinned. Alex put his head back in relief, chuckling. Amy squeezed Alex's hand once more, who rubbed her arm soothingly. "Told you," he whispered to her. She smiled slightly.

"Sir, two more incoming!" shouted another of the soldiers, re-alerting the four to their present situation.

"Three more over here!"

River got to action, reaching into a bag and retrieving another scanner. "Amy, sit up," she ordered. "I need to test your vitals quickly."

"Come on," Alex heaved, pulling Amy up so she was sat on the rock. Alex and the Doctor crouched down in front of her as River wrapped something that looked like a blood-pressure scanner from the 21st Century around her arm.

"No more counting," the Doctor noted. "Not for a while now, even before you closed your eyes."

"The Angels wanted to extend their 'fun' I suppose?" Alex surmised. "Keep her scared for as long as possible?" The Doctor nodded grimly.

The machine in Amy's arm beeped. River looked at the readings quickly and un-strapped it from Amy. "Still weak. Dangerous to move her,"

"So can I open my eyes now?" asked Amy, her voice returned to normal strength.

"Amy, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die." Amy frowned in dismay. Alex's eyes widened while River glanced at the Doctor, though kept her face. "The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just, sort of... paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes."

"Doctor, we're too exposed here," Octavian told him, glancing around. "We have to move on."

"We're too exposed everywhere. And Amy can't move. And anyway, that's not the plan," the Doctor stood up and strolled around, as if getting his bearings.

"There's a plan?" River asked in surprise, looking up at the Doctor.

"I don't know yet; I haven't finished talking. Right! Father! You and your clerics, you're gonna stay here and look after Amy. If anything happens to her, I'll hold each and every one of you personally responsible. Twice. River, Alex. We're gonna go and find the primary flight deck, which is...a quarter of a mile straight ahead."

"Shouldn't one of us stay here with Amy?" Alex asked, his arm around her shoulder.

"Nope, she'll be fine with the clerics. Anyway, I need you both. Come on! From there, we're going to stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels and cure Amy," the Doctor was already jogging in the direction as he spoke.

"How?" River asked, stopping him in his tracks.

"I'll do a thing," he told the group triumphantly.

"What thing?"

"I don't know, it's a thing in progress. Respect the thing! Moving out!" Not waiting for a response, he turned and jogged towards the hill.

"Doctor, I'm coming with you," Octavian declared. "My clerics will look after Miss Pond. These are my best men; they'd lay down their lives in her protection,"

"I don't need you," the Doctor said, rather harshly in Alex's opinion.

"I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go."

"What?" the Doctor chuckled. "You too engaged or something?"

"Yes," Octavian replied after a pause. Alex, still sat beside Amy, turned his head in amusement. "In a manner of speaking. Marco!" he called to one of the soldiers. "You're in charge 'til I get back," he said as he led River up and out of the clearing.

"Sir."

"Can't I come with you?" Amy asked, sounding slightly more vulnerable once more.

"You'd slow us down Miss Pond!" Octavian called over his shoulder.

"Don't want to sound selfish but you'd really speed me up!"

"You'll be okay here," Alex assured her.

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed, taking a seat next to Amy. "We can't protect you on the move,"

"Well why can't Alex stay with me?"

"I'd be happy to," Alex told the Doctor. "If I'm needed here,"

"I need you with me," the Doctor told him. He turned back to Amy. "We'll be back for you as soon as we can, I promise,"

"You always say that," Amy grumbled.

"I always come back," he told her as he stood up. "Good luck everyone, behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes! And keep watching the forest, stop those Angels advancing." He patted Amy on the head. "Amy, later. C'mon Alex. River, gonna need your computer!" With that, the Doctor chased after River and Octavian and out of the clearing.

"You'll be okay," Alex reassured her. "I'd stay if I could. But if he says he needs me, he needs me,"

"Yeah. I know."

"I'd better go," he told her apologetically. Amy turned to the sound of his voice and pulled him into a hug, thanking him. "No problem," he mumbled back.

"Oi! Stop flirting and get here will you?" the Doctor had returned. Amy and Alex parted and Alex got up from the rock.

"We're not _flirting_!" he called back, affronted. The Doctor shrugged, turned and disappeared once more. "See you later," Alex muttered to Amy and walked off.

"Yeah... later..." he heard her murmur as he walked away. Alex reached the top of the hill and could see the Doctor, River and Octavian pushing their way through the overgrown plants and bushes in the distance. He glanced back at Amy. Was she talking to herself? Alex frowned in confusion and started to walk back down the hill to investigate.

"ALEX!" the Doctor shouted at the top of his voice. Alex sighed in irritation and stalked off after the other three.

F L E S H A N D S T O N E

"What's that?" River's voice asked from behind a particularly dense clump of trees.

"What's what?" Alex asked as he forced his way through them, finally having caught up with the other three.

"Readings from a crack in the wall," the Doctor replied, holding the machine in his hand up so Alex could see it.

"How could light from the end of the universe shine through a crack in the wall?"

"And how did it follow us here?"

"It didn't. Here's what I think. One day, there's going to be a very big bang; so big that every moment in history – past and future – will crack."

"Is that even possible?" asked River incredulously. When she got no reply, she continued. "How?"

"How can you be engaged 'in a manner of speaking'?"

River and the Doctor stopped and looked at each other. Octavian, a few paces ahead, also stopped and turned to hear River's response. Alex walked on before realising and stopped too.

"Well... sucker for a man in uniform," she said cheekily, glancing at Octavian and grinning. The grin turned into a grimace as Octavian strode towards them.

"Doctor Song is in my personal custody. I released her from the Stormcage Containment Facility four days ago, and I am legally responsible for her until she has accomplished her mission and earned her pardon." As Octavian spoke, River's face dropped further and further, until she looked completely distraught. Contrastingly, the Doctor looked surprisingly smug to Alex, who was slightly lost. He decided it was best to keep quiet for now, as Octavian went on. "Just so we understand each other," he told them all irritably before resuming the walk, apart from his three companions.

"Father," Alex called, catching up to Octavian, who turned around and noticed how was calling him. He looked stern yet friendly at the same time. "Did you say River was in _Stormcage_?"

"You know of Stormcage?" he asked.

"Sort of, yeah,"

"Stormcage is a prison planet," Octavian went on as he continued the march. "It was designated as such on its discovery over a thousand years ago. It contains most major criminals of this galactic quadrant,"

"So River was actually _in prison_?" Alex asked in shock, glancing back at her and the Doctor.

"_Is_ in prison, yes," Octavian corrected. "And unless our mission today in 100% successful, she will be for a long while yet."

"Why was she in there? In Stormcage?" he asked as they reached the top of a hill.

"We're here!" Octavian called back to River and the Doctor, not answering Alex's question.

Looking down the hill, Alex noticed that a building almost identical to the secondary flight deck lay before them. In fact, if it weren't for the sign saying 'primary flight deck', he'd have thought it _was_ the secondary deck.

"Ah good," the Doctor said, arriving at the top of the hill too. "Alex, take this," he said, passing him the Sonic and taking a good look at the machine in his hand.

"What do I do with it?"

"Well I don't know. See if you can help the Bishop."

"What're _you_ going to do?"

The Doctor sighed and pulled Alex to one side as River and Octavian ventured down the hill. Octavian set to work on the door and River pulled a gun from its holster and aimed it into the forest. "Right, listen. That crack. The explosion that causes it. You need to promise me you won't tell Amy this,"

"Okay, I promise," Alex agreed, confused by the secrecy.

"The explosion is the day we picked Amy up. Or the day after. Around then-"

"_What_?" Alex almost shrieked.

"Shh!" the Doctor whispered harshly. "Yeah. 26th June 2010. That's the date of the explosion. That's the date the universe ends."

The Doctor jogged down the hill towards the flight deck, leaving Alex dumbfounded at the top. Eventually, he caught himself, realising that the Angels could come up behind him at any moment. He spun on the spot to check behind him, before running down the hill after the others.

"Doesn't open from here," Octavian reported, having studied the door thoroughly. "But it's the primary flight deck," he said as he knelt down beside a glass opening in the middle of the door. "This has got to be a service hatch or something..."

"Well hurry up and open it," River ordered, still aiming her pistol into the trees. "Time's running out,"

"What? What did you say? _Time's_ running out?" the Doctor asked, as if River were being stupid. "Is that what you said?"

"Y-yeah. I just meant th-"

"-I know what you meant! Hush!" he told her as Alex passed him the Sonic back. He used it on the machine briefly. "But what if it could? What if time could run out?"

"Got it!" Octavian called triumphantly, as he successfully opened the small gap in the wall.

The Doctor was still talking to himself. "Cracks. Cracks in time. Time running out. No. Couldn't be. But how is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? And she didn't remember the Daleks." He spun on the spot and pointed at Alex. "But you did. What's the difference there? Why could you when she couldn't? Right... okay, time can shift. Time can change, time can be rewritten. Ah. Oh!" he cried, apparently having worked something out.

River and Alex exchanged confused glances. Octavian was still busy working on the opening to listen.

"Doctor?" Alex tried tentatively.

"Hush Alex. Thinking," the Doctor replied bluntly. He continued to stare into the trees, periodically tapping once or twice on the machine in front of him. River slowly turned back to the trees and re aimed her pistol.

"Doctor Song! Get through, now!" Octavian ordered, holding his hand out for her. Alex glanced over and saw that the opening was finally ready to be crawled through. River hurriedly knelt down and scurried through the gap. "Mr Morgan?" Octavian asked Alex as River arrived at the other side. Alex obliged and jogged over to the hole in the wall.

"Time can be _un_written!" the Doctor said slowly.

"Sorry?" Alex asked him, already halfway through the short tube into the flight deck.

"Keep going," Octavian ordered. "Doctor?" he asked as Alex resumed the climb.

Alex soon arrived at the end of the tube and tumbled into the primary flight deck. He grunted and got to his feet, rubbing his slightly-bruised elbow. He looked around, squinting through the darkness. The room appeared similar to the secondary flight deck; a mess. There were more consoles here, but just as many confusing controls and tangled, messed-up wires. River was already standing behind one of the consoles, trying to work them out.

"You okay?" she asked. She steamed onwards, not waiting for a response. "I'll see if I can get the lights working,"

Alex smiled slightly and strolled over to the left wall. He pulled a lever and the room was bathed in a weak, yet somehow bright light. River looked over at him in surprise, questioningly.

"The ship crashed with the power still on," he reminded her. "I assumed the light switch would still work," he grinned, gesturing to the lever he'd pulled.

River chuckled too. "Well, that makes things easier. Now then. Ooh," she muttered, noticing something to the right of the room. She walked over to it.

"What's that?" Alex asked as she examined it.

"A teleport," she replied with another beaming smile. "Looks like it was damaged in the crash. I'll see if I can get it going. Save the others a walk..."

"Get to it then," Alex smiled. "What's taking them so long?" he asked, suddenly realising the Doctor and Octavian were still outside. He walked over to the hole to look out as the Doctor climbed inside alone and slammed the hatch shut. Alex frowned, noting the absence.

"There's a teleport," River informed the Doctor as he stood up, a morose expression on his face. River didn't notice, still working hard. "If I can get it working, we can beam the others here. Where's Octavian?" she asked, finally glancing up.

"Octavian's dead." Alex and River both looked at the Doctor in shock. They'd been gone about two minutes... "So is that teleport, you're wasting your time. I'm gonna need your communicator." He snatched River's communicator from her top pocket without waiting for permission.

After what seemed like an age, Alex found his voice. He took a deep breath before asking quietly, "What shall I do?"

The Doctor looked round at him in surprise, as if remembering he was there at all. He passed him the communicator and the Sonic. "I've preset the Sonic. Use it on the communicator until it beeps." Without another word, he got on all fours and looked under the console in front of him, grunting in discomfort.

Alex sighed and did as he was told, feeling slightly redundant. "What's this doing?"

"Scanning the local area for similar technology, helping us to get in contact with the others," the Doctor told him as if he were a child. Alex didn't mind. He at least felt as if he had a purpose now.

He continued to scan the communicator for a few minutes to no avail. Eventually, it beeped and a demanding voice emerged from the communicator: "Hello? Hello?" said the familiar Scottish voice, loudly.

The Doctor immediately rolled out from under the console and held out his hand for the communicator before Alex could reply. He put it to his mouth a spoke into it. "Amy. Amy? Is that you?"

"Doctor?" Amy asked, sounding thoroughly relieved.

"Where are you? Are the clerics with you?"

"They've gone. There was a light, and they walked into the light. Doctor, they didn't even remember each other..."

"No, they wouldn't,"

"What is that light?" asked River as she worked on the teleport despite the Doctor's discouragement.

"Time running out. Amy, I'm sorry. I've made a mistake. I should never have left you there. Especially not alone. I should have at least left Alex with you, I'm sorry,"

"Well what do I do now?"

"You come to us. The primary flight deck, other end of the forest,"

"I can't see," Amy pointed out. "I can't open my eyes!"

The Doctor soniced the bottom of the communicator. "Turn on the spot," he ordered.

"Sorry?"

"Just do it! Turn on the spot! When the communicator sounds like my Screwdriver, that means you're facing the right way. Follow the sound."

There was silence from the other end as Amy did as she was told. "So the clerics are dead?" Alex asked, their whereabouts not actually having been explained.

"No. Can't die if you're never born. Amy? You have to start moving now. There's time energy spilling out of that crack and you have to stay ahead of it!"

"But there's Angels everywhere!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I really am," the Doctor told her. He sounded completely emotionless. "But the Angels can only kill you."

"What does the time energy do?"

"Just. Keep. Mo-o-oving!" the Doctor commanding, sounding rather patronising.

"Tell me," Amy pleaded.

"What d'you mean 'never born'?" Alex had digested what the Doctor had said to him. The Doctor spoke again, speaking as much to Alex as to Amy.

"If the time energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born, it will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived. At all."


	21. Flesh and Stone: Three

_THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT TONIGHT! Who's excited? Of course, by the time the _vast_ majority of you read this, it will have aired. A Good Man Goes to War will probably have aired for some of you! _

_Right, if anyone's wondering where I'm actually going with this, rest assured! I _do_ have an arc-y type thing regarding Alex. I've already dropped some very (probably _too_) subtle hints as to what it could be... Stay tuned! Again, many thanks for all of your kind reviews!_

_Oh and, slightly disappointed by the distinct lack of you-know-what at the end? Don't worry, there shall be a fair bit of it in the next part... ;) _

Flesh and Stone – Part Three

Amy obeyed the Doctor following his ominous announcement. There was silence from the communicator as she concentrated to her fullest. A metallic clanging sounded throughout the room, causing Alex and River to jump slightly and look around for the source of the noise.

"What's that?" River whispered.

"The Angels running from the fire. They came here to feed on the time energy, now it's gonna feed on them!" The Doctor spoke into the communicator again as he soniced it. "Amy, listen to me. I'm sending a bit of software to your communicator. It's a proximity detector. It'll beep when there's something in your way, you just manoeuvre 'til the beeping stops. Because Amy, this is important. The forest is full of Angels..."

"Can't I go and get her?" Alex asked, already half way to the hatch.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. "No. You stay here. You _have_ to stay here."

"Why?" Alex asked heatedly.

"The forest is full of Angels," the Doctor repeated. He turned back to the communicator. "Amy, I'm sorry. You're on your own with this. You're going to have to walk like you can see."

"Well, what d'you mean?" Amy asked, the fear obvious in her voice.

The Doctor avoided the question. "Look, just keep moving." The hush from the other end seemed to show that Amy was once more doing as she was told.

"That time energy. What's it going to do?" River asked after a moment or two of silence.

"Erm... keep eating," the Doctor replied, rubbing his head.

"How do we stop it?"

"Feed it."

"Feed it what?"

"A big, complicated, space-time event _should_ shut it up for a while."

"Like what, for instance?"

The Doctor finally snapped. "LIKE ME, FOR INSTANCE!" he roared at River furiously, brandishing his Screwdriver as if it were a sword.

"Doctor," Alex reprimanded. The Doctor glanced at him angrily but his face softened. Alex had always had the ability to calm the Doctor, though he had no idea why. The Doctor just nodded to himself. A slow, high-pitched beeping sounded.

"What's that?" Amy's voice whispered, unaware of the confrontation that had occurred.

"It's a warning. There are Angels around you now... Amy listen to me, this is gonna be hard. But I _know_ you can do it. The Angels are scared, and running, and right now they're not that interested in you; they'll assume you can see them. Their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see... Just don't open your eyes." He closed his eyes, the pain of what he was asking Amy to do shooting through him. Alex sank onto one of the chairs, unable to bear the tension. River sighed and busied herself once more with the teleport. "You're not moving, you have to do this. Now!" Still, there was no evidence of any change or movement at Amy's end. "You have to do this!" the Doctor cried, repeatedly slamming the console in sheer frustration. Finally, the beeping slowed and intensified intermittently, indicating Amy's movement through the Angels. After a minute or so, there was a small shriek and a dull _crash_.

"Amy?" Alex asked worriedly, jumping up from his chair.

"Amy? Are you there?" the Doctor pressed the buttons on the communicator frantically, attempting to re-establish a connection.

"What's happened?"

"I don't know. Everything's fine here!" the Doctor looked incredibly worried.

"Just about finished, I think..." River murmured.

"Right, nothing for it. I'm going out for her. Alex, stay here," the Doctor commanded, ignoring River.

"No need," she reported, standing up. She pressed a button on the teleport. A large, bright, blue orb of light lit up the room. It faded and a dazed Amelia Jessica Pond collapsed into River's arms. "Don't open your eyes," River told her. "You're on the flight deck. The Doctor and Alex are both here. I teleported you." Alex and the Doctor grinned enormous grins, unable to find words. "See? Told you I could get it working," River smugly reminded the Doctor, who didn't even care.

"River Song, I could bloody kiss you!"

She smiled wryly. "Ah well. Maybe when you're older..."

An alarm blared as the ship began to shake slightly again. "What's that mean?" Alex asked.

"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power. Which means..!" he turned to face the front wall. "Shield's gonna release!"

As if on cue, the wall of the primary flight deck unlocked and slowly rose up to reveal countless Angels, all now entirely restored to their former glory. Alex gazed in horror at their number. They were completely and totally surrounded by the Angels. Some were frozen in ferocious positions, some had covered their eyes. Some even looked rather bored.

"Angel Bob, I presume?" the Doctor asked the Angel at the front as he stepped forward himself.

"The time field is coming. It will destroy our reality." Bob's ever-pleasant dead voice emitted from the Angel's unmoving face, the communicator no longer necessary. Glancing past the mass of Angels, Alex noticed in the distance a dazzling, gleaming light coming from the other end of the forest, shining bright through the trees.

"And look at you all, running away! And what can I do for you?"

"There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close, and they will be saved."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, could do that. Could do, but why?"

"Your friends would also be saved," Bob replied simply.

"Well there is that..."

River jumped. She grabbed Alex's hand and placed it around Amy, telling him to keep her steady. She then ran to the Doctor's side. "I've travelled in time. I'm a complicated space-time event too. Throw me in," she offered, nobly.

"Oh, be serious. Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you, and it'd take every single one of them to amount to me. So get a grip."

"Doctor, I can't let you do this!"

The Doctor looked down at the floor. "No, seriously! Get a grip!"

Alex smiled as the ship juddered again, realising.

"You're not gonna die here!" River implored, grasping the Doctor's arm, still not understanding.

"No! I mean it! River, Alex, Amy, get a grip!"

River looked down at the floor too. Realisation dawned on her. "Oh you genius," she whispered as she turned around. She and Alex locked eyes, both making sure the other understood. River joined Alex at Amy's side. They both took one of her arms and placed her hand on something firm and strong.

"Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now," Bob reminded the Doctor.

"Hold on tight, and don't you let go for _anything_," River told Amy. She simply nodded. Alex held onto a bar near to Amy so he could catch her if she slipped. The monitors beeped, displayed the words "Gravity failing." River ran to the other console and seized another bar.

"Thing is, Bob. The Angels are drawing all the power from this ship, every last bit of it. And y'know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the _gravity_ of the situation. Or to put it another way Angels...nun-night."

The Doctor spun on the spot and grabbed onto the fourth and final metal bar. The shaking reached a crescendo as the Angels drew the final vestige of power from the Byzantium, and the gravity finally failed. Alex held onto the bar with all his might, having to carry his entire weight. He glanced down and saw that the Angels, still quantum-locked and therefore unable to save themselves, were all plummeting downwards due to the gravity, heading right for the time field. He felt a pang of guilt as he imagined Octavian's lifeless corpse also plunging, undignified, towards the crack. Eventually, the shaking stopped and the light from the crack dissipated as the Angels satisfied its hunger.

"Now what?" Alex called. They were all still dangling from the bars.

"Climb out," the Doctor replied simply, somehow managing to shrug. He reached up and placed his hand on a fairly sturdy-looking lever and pulled himself skywards. There didn't seem to be any exit door in the vicinity. Alex had a sneaking suspicion they would have to scale endless corridors similar to the ones they'd run up away from the Angels, so long ago.

"Tell me you're joking," Amy said. "I can't even see where I'm climbing!"

"Yeah you can! You can open your eyes now," the Doctor explained to her, already reaching up in search of a new hand-hold. "The Angel that you looked at never existed now. There never was an Angel in your mind,"

"That's just confusing," Alex muttered as he extended his own arm and yanked on another metal bar, testing its strength. It seemed to be fairly sturdy.

"Alex, put my hand somewhere," Amy asked, her eyes still closed as she held out her hand in Alex's general direction.

"He's right, you can open your eyes," River told her, practically leaping up the room towards the exit.

Nevertheless, Alex took Amy's hand and placed it on a suitable hand-hold. She put her weight on it and slipped, shrieking. Alex managed to catch her as she found her footing once more. "This is not going to work," Alex announced, as he looked up and saw that choices for potential hand- and foot-holds were few and far between.

"Of course it is!" River called back. She'd arrived at a conveniently-placed hatch door and was working on unlocking it.

Alex attempted to shimmy along to follow the path River had taken. He placed his hand on a robust-looking cupboard just above him and heaved. It opened and freezing water came cascading out of it. Alex cried out in surprise as he got completely drenched. River and the Doctor laughed, and even Amy chuckled, having heard the flow of water and the high-pitched yelp Alex had unwittingly uttered.

"Water-store," the Doctor answered Alex's unanswered question. Alex sighed and held out a hand for Amy to take. She did so and he led her to the exit, which the Doctor had now reached.

F L E S H A N D S T O N E

Fresh clerics were waiting up top. They asked where Octavian was, which the Doctor seemed pleased at. He told Alex that that meant that Octavian's body hadn't fallen into the time field, meaning that he would at least be remembered. River invented a story, explaining that the Angels had killed him and then displaced his body in time. The 'dead' clerics were not asked about, though Bob, Christian and Angelo were.

The Doctor finally managed to make Amy open her eyes, all but physically forcing them open to make her do so. She seemed genuinely surprised when she found that she felt absolutely fine on doing so. One of the clerics handed her a blanket – not Alex, he noted, despite him being soaking wet – and she took a seat on a large rock. Another cleric took River to one side and placed her in futuristic handcuffs.

"Uhh," Amy groaned in pain. "Bruised everywhere..."

"Me too," the Doctor and Alex said in unison, rolling their eyes.

"You two didn't have to climb out with your eyes shut!"

"Neither did you! I kept saying! The Angels all fell into the time field. The Angel in your memory never existed. Can't harm you now."

"Then why do I remember it all? Those guys on the ship didn't remember each other..."

The Doctor smiled. "You're a time traveller now, Amy. Changes the way you see the Universe. Forever. Good, isn't it?" he said happily as Amy chuckled and Alex smiled.

"Wanna share that?" Alex asked Amy, nodding towards the blanket around her. She smiled and shook her head childishly. Alex adopted a mock annoyed expression and sighed audibly. So," he said, serious once more and turning back to the Doctor. "The crack..?"

"Is it gone?"

"Yeah..." the Doctor replied after a moment. "For now," he elaborated. "But the explosion that caused it is still happening. Somewhere out there," he glanced out to the alien ocean before looking towards Alex, knowingly. "_Somewhere_ in time." With that, the Doctor strolled away towards River, who was standing, gazing out to sea, her hands in cuffs and surrounded by armed clerics.

"Okay, seriously, hand over the blanket," Alex demanded as a cold breeze swept through the bay.

"Ask for your own," she chuckled, wrapping it around herself more tightly.

"They've got guns!"

"They aren't gonna shoot you for asking for a blanket," Amy laughed.

"Seriously, I'm freezing," he also laughed, tugging at the blanket. "You've got a jumper on under there!"

"Yeah, and a _mini_skirt!" Amy justified. Alex rolled his eyes jokingly. Amy jumped up from the rock. "C'mon. Movement'll warm you up." She followed the Doctor towards River. Alex tagged along. River was mid-sentence, being as enigmatic as ever.

"...you'll see me again quite soon. All of you. When the Pandorica opens..."

"Pandorica!" the Doctor laughed. He leaned in to River and whispered something inaudible in her ear.

River laughed in reply. "Oh Doctor! Aren't we all? I'll see you there,"

"I look forward to it,"

"I remember it well!"

The Doctor laughed. It was incredible, Alex thought, how the Doctor could act this friendly with the same woman whom he bellowed furiously at down in the primary flight deck."

"Bye River," Amy whispered, approaching her.

"See you Amy," she replied. The cuffs began to beep. "Oh, I think that's my ride! Alex. See you soon, will I not?"

Alex attempted to smile, trying and failing to disguise his sadness at the outcome of River's next and final meeting with he and the Doctor. He simply nodded.

"Can I trust you, River Song?" the Doctor interrupted, not entirely unintentionally, Alex imagined.

"If you like! Ha. But where's the fun in that?"

Similar to earlier, a mini tornado formed around River, as well as the surrounding clerics. They transported them all away from the Doctor, Alex and Amy and quickly out of sight, as if they were never there. The Doctor turned to face the sea, the TARDIS looking almost picturesque against the beautiful backdrop. Alex and Amy joined him silently on either side of him.

"What're you thinking?" Amy asked him quietly.

"Time can be rewritten," he replied simply, smiling. "Right, come on. Back to the TARDIS," he announced, prancing the way there.

"Mine!" Alex had taken note of Amy's lapse in concentration and seized the blanket from her. "The clerics are gone, they aren't coming back for it," Alex reasoned amid Amy's protests. He won and rubbed his hair dry with it. The Doctor unlocked the door to the TARDIS and ushered them both inside. Amy took a seat on one of the chairs and Alex leaned on the barrier. The Doctor pulled a couple of levers, typed on the typewriter and they were off. After a minute or two of silence, Amy spoke.

"I wanna go home," she told the Doctor. Alex turned to look down at her, shocked.

The Doctor didn't reply. "Okay," he eventually whispered.

"No, not like that!" she said, jumping up and smiling as she looked at them both. "I just... I just wanna show you both something... you're running from River. I'm running too."

"Running from what?" Alex asked, intrigued as the Doctor piloted the TARDIS towards Amy's Leadworth home.

"It's best I show you rather than tell you," Amy told him apologetically. Alex raised his eyebrows momentarily before shrugging an 'okay'.

"Reckon I'll have time to change before we get there, Doctor?" Alex asked, remembering his saturated clothes. There was an incredible turnover of clothes when you travelled with the Doctor.

"If you're quick," came the hurried response as the Doctor jogged round to the other side of the console and pulled a lever.

Alex nodded and climbed the staircase towards the wardrobe.


	22. Meanwhile: Four

_Some of you may think the Amy/Alex action here is purely there because Alex is based on me, and Amy/Karen is a hugely attractive woman. You'd be right. Other than that though, Alex does take a bit of a back seat in this part (which is fairly long for a Meanwhile in the TARDIS)._

_Anyway, I have bad news for ya'll. Well, two pieces of bad news, and one good news. Firstly, my laptop has a virus. So it's hugely slow, and I can't even get onto the internet. I'm currently typing on my parents' laptop, which is at least five years old, and seriously slows down how much work I can do. Secondly, I have exams looming, beginning in a couple of weeks, so revision for those limits my time to write this even more! :( I'll upload when I can._

_The good news though? Day of the Moon tomorrow! (And of course, as a Brit, congratulations to Wills and Kate) _

Meanwhile in the TARDIS 4

How had Alex managed to get lost? Although it looked different, the actual layout of the TARDIS was relatively unchanged. He had also managed to get to the wardrobe several times _since_ the change. And yet the TARDIS had been stationary for several minutes by the time Alex emerged from the wardrobe room in dry clothes, rubbing his hair again vigourously, this time with a towel. He managed to make his way back to the console room with few mistakes and made his way to the TARDIS doors. As he approached them, Amy burst through. She caught sight of him and walked directly towards him.

"Hello," she whispered seductively.

"Hi, Amy," Alex frowned, unsure how to react. She was practically pushing her body against his.

The Doctor followed Amy through the doors and sighed, irritated, when he saw what Amy was doing. "Good luck," he muttered as he passed the two of them and strode towards the console.

"Everything okay?" Alex asked him, turning to look at the Doctor as he walked past.

Amy placed a hand on either side of his face and turned it back to face her. "Everything's great," she murmured. She leant in and forced her soft, beautiful lips onto Alex's. His eyes widened in surprise but he didn't pull away. He responded with gusto and he and Amy locked lips powerfully, both with wandering hands amid the Doctor's audible yet non-verbal protests. Eventually, Amy pulled away and put her hand in Alex's. "Come with me," she suggestively whispered, putting her fingers into Alex's waistband and using it to pull him towards the TARDIS doors slowly.

"Nope!" the Doctor cried. He pressed a button on the console, locking the doors. Amy pulled and pushed them slightly aggressively before turning to face the Doctor angrily. "No," he repeated. "This is wrong, you aren't doing this!"

"Oh, typical bloke," Amy muttered. "If you can't have me, neither can he?"

"That's the thing Amy; I am not a typical bloke!"

"Can I ask?" Alex cut in. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well Alex," the Doctor said, turning to him. "Before you and Amy run off to her bedroom, you should probably know that she's getting married in the morning-"

"You're _what_?" Alex cried, turning back to Amy, who was stood surprisingly close to him. Alex recoiled slightly in surprise, which Amy didn't miss. She threw her head back in irritation, grumbling.

"Married in the morning!" the Doctor repeated. "To the one with the nose. Rory,"

"I liked Rory!" Alex cried out, stepping further away from Amy who was still making amorous advances.

"Okay look, you were up for it, I'm happy with that," Amy told Alex, seemingly satisfied. She turned to the Doctor. "But you. Did I do something wrong? I'm kinda gettin' mixed signals here!" she demanded, marching up to the console level.

"Mixed signals? How?" the Doctor replied heatedly, throwing a lever rather harshly.

"Oh come on. You turn up at my house in the middle of the night, get me out of bed in my nightie, which you then don't let me change out of for ages-"

"-In fairness, you _chose_ to come out in your nightie," Alex interjected, also standing next to the console now.

Amy ploughed on, cosying up to the Doctor now. "And take me for a spin in your time machine. No, you're right, no mixed signals there. That is just a signal! Like a great big Bat Signal in the sky!" Amy raised her hand to emphasize the point as the Doctor chuckled, grinning. Alex smiled too, amused by Amy's slight rant. "'Get your coat love, the Doctor is in!'"

The Doctor stopped himself laughing and reprimanded himself. "No! No, no no no no no no, that's not what I'm like," he assured her as he pulled another lever. "It's not like that, that's not what I'm like."

"Then what are you like?"

"I don't know. Gandalf! A Space Gandalf!" Alex suppressed a laugh. "Or the little green one in Star Wars," and the Doctor proceeded to spin on the spot with an imaginary light sabre. Alex snorted with laughter from the sidelines now, prompting the Doctor to smile somewhat proudly.

"You really are not,"

"I can vouch for that," Alex told Amy, getting up from the chair. The Doctor had clicked at him and pointed to one of the black levers on the opposite side of the console. Alex strolled around and pulled it.

"Then maybe you can vouch for this too," Amy asked Alex. She turned back to the Doctor. "Every room you walk into, you laugh at all the men and show off to all the girls!"

Alex frowned. There was some truth in that.

"Do not!" the Doctor denied.

"What about Rory?" The Doctor snorted in laughter and chuckled, motioning a large nose with his hand. "You laughed!" Amy cried, seemingly genuinely hurt. Despite being completely up for cheating on him mere minutes before, Alex noted.

"No, that was an involuntary snort. Of fondness," the Doctor replied lamely, putting a hand on his hip.

"You are a bloke and you don't know it," Amy told him, putting a hand around his neck and putting him close. Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise and smiled. As much as he'd been 'up for it', he'd like to see how the Doctor reacted to this. "And here I am, to help..."

"That is not why you're here," the Doctor assured Amy awkwardly as she grabbed the straps of his braces and pulled him close. The Doctor pulled back again.

"Then why am I here?" she asked, leaning in.

"Because!" The Doctor's interruption was louder than expected, stopping Amy's advances. He clasped her hands in his, trapping them. "Because I can't see it anymore," he finished. He stood in silence for a moment or two before letting go and walking towards a chair. Alex frowned and got up from his own chair, noting the Doctor's tone.

"See what?"

"I'm 907!" he cried, slumping down into the chair. "After a while, you just can't see it!"

"See what?" Amy and Alex repeated in unison.

"Everything! I look at a star and it's just a big ball of burning gas! I don't know how it began, I don't know how it ends. And I was probably there both times! Y'know, after a while, everything is just stuff. That's the problem; you make all of time and space your backyard, and what do you have? A backyard." The Doctor finished his small speech resignedly and sighed. Then he jumped up from the chair. "But you, you can see it," he told Amy. "Both of you," he added, almost as an afterthought. "And when you see it, I see it."

"And that's the only reason you took me with you?" Amy asked sadly.

"There are worse reasons..."

"There are better ones too, like his," Amy said, gesturing to Alex.

"People save my life all the time, that's not the only reason Alex came,"

"I'd love to hear the others," Alex told him, leaning on the console. The Doctor turned around, as if remembering he was actually there and opened his mouth. He closed it again, unsure what to say. Alex smiled at him expectantly.

"Does that mean Alex isn't the first then?" Amy asked, saving the Doctor further embarrassment. "There've been others travelling with you!"

Once more, the Doctor was in a difficult situation. He chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah. Sure. Loads of them. But just friends. Y'know. Chums. Pals, mates, buddies." The Doctor caught himself. "Not mates, forget mates."

"And out of all those friends, how many would you say, just out of curiosity, were girls?"

"Oh..." the Doctor delayed for time. "Some of them, I suppose," he turned his back and strolled around to type on the typewriter. "Must've been,"

"Some?"

"Hard to tell, it's a grey area."

"Loads of them," Alex chipped in. The Doctor looked up at him in annoyance. Evidently he'd forgotten that Alex had met a TARDIS-full of them a few months back. Alex also knew that the Doctor had been travelling for hundreds of years before even the earliest he'd met.

"Oh!" Amy said happily, smiling patronisingly at the Doctor. "Young?"

"Everyone's young compared to me," the Doctor reminded her, as Alex nodded at Amy silently from behind him.

"Hm," Amy chuckled. "Hot?" she asked suggestively.

"No! No, no no no no no no, none of them, not really, not at all," the Doctor assured her. Alex shrugged from behind him, nodding, deciding it best not to mention that Amy was 'hotter' than any of the ones he'd met. "Maybe one or two," the Doctor conceded, prompting silent chuckles from Alex. "I didn't really notice."

"Well, this big ol' machine must have some kind of visual records?" Amy called, clearly attempting to talk to the TARDIS.

The Doctor muttered something unintelligible to himself. "No, and anyway, they're voice-locked!"

"Ah, voice-locked. So I would just have to say... Show me all visual records of previous TARDIS inhabitants!" Nothing happened.

The Doctor smiled and leaned back on the console. "No, no no, I mean voice-locked! I would have to say 'Show me all visual records of previous TARDIS inhabitants'."

"Oh, thank you!" Amy patted the Doctor on the arm and whirled around to the large monitor on the wall that seemed to be firing up. Alex, shocked at how easily the Doctor had been fooled, joined her there.

"No! No! No!" the Doctor cried, realising what he'd done. "No!"

Despite the Doctor's protests, the TARDIS proceeded to show images of a series of attractive young girls, some who Alex recognised and many who he didn't.

Amy laughed out loud in triumph. "Oh, Gandalf!" she joked.

"Thanks. Thanks dear," the Doctor said to the TARDIS as the images looped round again. "Miss out the metal dog, why don't you?" The Doctor was struck with inspiration. "Alex, you know that's not a full list! Where's Jack? Where's Mickey? I know loads of boys!"

"Jack..?" Alex asked in mock confusion.

The Doctor growled. "There were loads of them! Ian, Ben, Jamie, Harry, that isn't a full list!"

Alex and Amy were no longer listening, still fixated to the screen. "How many?" Alex laughed.

The Doctor seemed to be struck by more inspiration. "Ah, you see? Alex isn't up there; that is _not_ a full list!" he repeated.

"I'm not a _previous_ TARDIS inhabitant," Alex reminded the Doctor, putting down his final defence without even taking his eyes from the screen.

"Was that a leather bikini?" Amy cried. She'd apparently forgotten about bedding the Doctor or Alex.

"Right!" the Doctor cried, having no more of it. "Rory! We're gonna find Rory, and we're gonna find him now!"

"He's at his stag night," Amy told him.

"Well then. Let's make it a great one." With that, the Doctor pulled a final lever and set the TARDIS to land. It suddenly sped up, throwing Alex and Amy away from the screen and to the floor. Eventually, they landed successfully. "Stay here 'til I get back," he told them, running towards the door and stepping outside. After a moment, he put his head back inside and spoke with a grin. "Oh, and I've locked the doors to all the bedrooms."


	23. The Vampires of Venice: One

_I really don't like how I've written this towards the end. Did I rush it? I'm not sure, but it just doesn't seem to roll off the tongue. I just thought I'd stick it up here anyway. Not too much deviation again here, but rest assured. Later in this episode, there'll be a pretty big deviation from the established storyline. If you like what you read, then review, you wonderful people! :D _

Vampires of Venice – Part One

"Wish he'd hurry up," Alex muttered as he tentatively pulled a lever. "I don't have a clue what I'm doing." When Amy didn't reply, Alex glanced around and realised he was alone in the console room. Some footsteps nearby caused him to look up and see Amy pacing the floor on the upper level beyond a staircase. "You okay?" Alex called up to her.

"Fine," she replied, a worried look on her face. She resumed pacing. "You don't think he's going to tell Rory, do you?"

"Nah. He wouldn't," Alex assured her. "Probably. What's wrong with this thing?" he cried, as he pressed a button, to no avail.

"Maybe nothing?"

"It's never hummed like this though. Maybe something's wrong with it." Alex put his eye to one of the glass panels on the console, attempting to find the source of the noise. Suddenly, the TARDIS doors burst open behind him. "Doctor, the console's humming. Should it be doing th- hi Rory!" Alex said slightly over enthusiastically as he turned around to see Rory standing, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in the doorway of the TARDIS, slowly looking around. Amy waved to him timidly as the Doctor skipped past him.

"Well close the door!" the Doctor called to Rory, who was yet to speak. Rory stumbled forwards and up to the console level. The Doctor gave the console a quick once-over. "Blimey. Shouldn't be doing that. One mo', I'll sort it." The Doctor then jogged down a flight of nearby stairs to the ground below the glass floor. He opened a small shabby, rusting cupboard and pulled out a pair of black goggles. He affixed them to his face and sat back on a rope swing, before setting to work on the underside of the console.

"So what's wrong with it?" Alex called, kneeling on the floor and looking through the glass.

"Nothing to worry about, just missing a temporal isometre,"

"And that means..?"

At that moment, the console shuddered and a shower of sparks rained down on the Doctor, meaning that he didn't hear Alex's question.

"You okay?" Alex asked Rory cheerily. Rory simply nodded, still unable to speak. Alex smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. He then climbed the stairs and joined Amy on the balcony overlooking the console.

"I guess he hasn't told him yet?" Amy whispered to Alex. "I mean, he would've freaked out by now, wouldn't he? Would you?"

"Look, let's just hope he doesn't. Because if he does... well, I'm in trouble too."

"Why would you be?"

"I was 'up for it'," Alex quoted, smiling slightly.

"Shut up," Amy chuckled, punching him on the shoulder.

"Honestly, the life out there, it dazzles!" the Doctor shouted to the three of them, as he avoided another spark shower. "I mean, it blinds you to the things that are important! I've seen it devour relationships and plans-" a third explosion of sparks, this time from the console itself, caused Rory to jump and nearly shout out. "It's meant to do that," the Doctor assured him as smoke gushed from the console. He went on. "Because, for one person to have seen all that, to taste the glory and then go back? It will tear you apart. So," the Doctor announced, finishing his work and removing the goggles. He looked through the floor at Rory, grinning, and then shifted his eyes towards Amy. "I'm sending you somewhere. Together,"

Amy jumped and jogged down the stairs to the console. "Whoa, what? Like a date?"

The Doctor got up from the swing and walked towards the stairs, climbing them back to the console. "Anywhere you want. Any time you want! One condition; it has to be amazing. The Moulin Rouge in 1890? The first Olympic Games! Think of it as a wedding present, 'cos frankly, it's either this or tokens." He proceeded to walk around to Rory and addressed him. "It's a lot to take in isn't it? Tiny box. Huge room inside! What's that about? Let me explain."

"It's another dimension," Rory stated, finally speaking.

"It's basically another dimens- _what_?"

"After what happened with Prisoner Zero, I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories. FTL travel. Parallel universes..."

The Doctor walked towards Rory slowly and said, almost menacingly, "I like the bit when someone says it's bigger on the inside. I always look forward to that..." The Doctor glared at Rory for a moment or two, before smiling and looking away.

"So!" Amy said, breaking the slight tension. "This date. I'm kinda done with runnin' down corridors. What d'ya think Rory?"

"How about somewhere romantic?" the Doctor suggested, pulling the start up lever with a grin. Rory's eyes widened and he held onto Amy for dear life as the TARDIS began to shudder and shake.

"How about Midnight?" Alex suggested. "Nice and..." Alex faltered under the Doctor's look. "Relaxing? No? Bad suggestion?"

"Bad suggestion," the Doctor confirmed. "Anyway, that'd have no relevance to Rory. We need to go to the past!"

"Like where?" Amy asked.

The Doctor pulled one last lever and the TARDIS landed. "Like here!" he cried, running towards the doors. Alex and Amy ran after him, Amy pulling Rory along by the arm. The Doctor stepped outside the doors and spread his arms out triumphantly. "Venice!" he cried, stepping forward. Alex stepped outside to discover that the TARDIS had landed in an old-style market-place on the bank of a great – and apparently, Venetian – canal. There were many people milling about, looking at market stalls, and one elderly woman guiding a goat through the crowds. On the canal, there were a number of gondolas bobbing on the water, tied to the bank. Alex grinned at the view. "Venizia! La Serenissima! Impossible city. Preposterous city! Founded by refugees running from Atilla the Hun!"

"When was that?" Alex asked, taking in the incredible view.

"Around 452. Just a collection of little wooden huts in the middle of the marsh. But! Became one of the most powerful cities in the world."

He led the three of them away from the bank and towards the city gates. Alex noticed Rory jumping at everything and twisting on the spot in amazement. Alex grinned again, nudged Amy and nodded back to Rory discreetly. Amy laughed silently, shrugged and continued to follow the Doctor.

"Constantly being invaded," the Doctor went on. "Constantly flooding. Constantly... just beautiful! Ah y'gotta love Venice. And so many people did! Byron. Napoleon. Casanova." The Doctor gasped and hurriedly held his watch up to his face, checking it. "That reminds me. 1580. That's alright, Casanova doesn't get born for 145 years. Don't want to run into him. I owe him a chicken."

"You owe Casanova a chicken?" Rory exclaimed amid giggles from Amy and Alex.

"Long story; we had a bet," the Doctor half explained.

"Whoa whoa whoa," said an elderly man, hurrying up to the Doctor as he attempted to pass under a large stone arch. "Papers, if you please! Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection!"

The Doctor put a hand into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a small black wallet with a slip of paper in it. Psychic paper. He showed it to the man, who swiped it from him. "There you go, fella," he said. "All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find."

The man read the paper and looked mortified. He bowed deeply. "I am _so_ sorry, your Holiness. I... I didn't realise..."

"No worries, you were just doing your job," the Doctor said to him with a grin. "Sorry, what exactly is your job?"

"Well, checking for aliens," he said matter-of-factly, prompting a look of shock from Rory, a smile from Amy and one of interest from Alex. "Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the Plague with them!"

"Oh! That's nice! See where you bring me? The Plague!" Amy cried out in irritation, hitting the Doctor on the arm.

The man cast an eye over the Psychic paper again. "Oh, don't worry, Viscountess. We're under quarantine here. No-one goes in and no-one goes out. And all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron Signora Rosanna Calvieri," he said proudly, gesturing to his official-looking book that was decorated with an ornate C.

"How interesting. I heard the Plague died out years ago?"

"Well not out there! No, Signora Calvieri has seen it with her own eyes! Streets are piled high with bodies, she says!"

"Did she now?" the Doctor said with a knowing smile. Rory leant forward nervously and took the Psychic paper from the man, who smiled at him. The Doctor led the group away from the man, who hurried off to intercept a couple of new arrivals.

"Erm, according to this, I am your eunuch!" Rory shouted at Amy who was already half way down the street.

"Oh yeah, I'll explain later," Amy disregarded, wandering away.

"What am I?" Alex enquired, interested.

Rory cast his eye over it before turning to face Alex and asking, somewhat heatedly, "Since when were you a _count_?"

Alex just smiled.

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

The Doctor led them through the winding streets of Venice, happily reeling off tales of past visits and exploits with Byron and Casanova. Eventually, they passed a big crowd, all gathering on the bank of a canal and gazing across it to a square on the other side.

"So what're they looking at?" the Doctor mused, managing to shuffle his way to the front of the crowd. Alex, Amy and Rory joined him there. Amy laughed in amazement as a gondolier steered his gondola past them peacefully, like a picture out of a guidebook. Across the canal was a group of girls walking gracefully across the square, their faces covered by veils, and all carrying parasols.

"It's the Calvieri girls!" squealed an excited voice somewhere behind them.

"Calvieri," Alex muttered to the Doctor, who nodded his understanding, but didn't speak. Alex followed his line of vision and found that the Doctor was looking in interest at a fairly portly man who had interrupted the proceedings across the canal. He had attempted to unveil one of the girls and had been violently pushed back by another. The girls were then led away by the woman who seemed to be in charge.

"What was that all about?" Amy wondered.

"Isabella!" the man across the canal cried after the group of girls. "It's me! Isabella!" Apparently, the pleas fell on deaf ears. Two muscley guards armed with long spears picked the man up by the armpits and dragged him away.

"Come on," the Doctor whispered to Alex. Alex turned to look at him. The Doctor put a finger to his lips and then ran away. Alex glanced back at Amy and Rory who were still looking across the canal before following the Doctor away. He soon lost sight of Amy and Rory through the crowds.

"And why're we leaving them behind?" Alex asked the Doctor when he finally caught up to him.

"They've got their honeymoon to get on with. No. Not honeymoon. What d'you call a pre-wedding honeymoon?" he asked Alex with genuine interest.

Alex shook his head in despair. "A date?"

"Yeah, a date. This is much more fun for us." Without another word, the Doctor started to run again. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, and Alex was certain to keep him in sight at all times. Eventually, they came to some back alleys. The Doctor stopped suddenly, causing Alex to nearly fall over in trying not to career into the Doctor's back. "There he is," the Doctor said to Alex, pointing along the alleyway to a man who was walking with slumped shoulders. Alex recognised him as the portly man from the square.

"What're we going to do with him?" Alex asked.

"Ask him some questions," the Doctor said with a grin. The man disappeared from view, so the Doctor started to run again. Alex sighed and chased after him. "Who are those girls?" the Doctor asked conversationally when he'd caught up with the man. The man turned in surprise to find the Doctor and Alex following him.

"I thought everyone knew about the Calvieri school," he said suspiciously, shifting his eyes from the Doctor to Alex and back again.

"It's our first day here. It's okay. Now, parents do all sorts of things to get their children into good schools; they move house; they change religion." The Doctor stopped talking as a man walked past, tipping his hat politely. "So why are you trying to get her out?" he whispered.

"Something happens in there. Something magical. Something evil." The man's voice was shaking slightly. Alex now understood what had intrigued the Doctor so much. "My own daughter didn't recognise me! And the girl who pushed me away. Her face. Like an animal."

The Doctor sighed and put one arm around Alex and one around the man. "I think it's time I met this Signora Calvieri."

"'I'?" Alex asked.

"'I'," the Doctor confirmed.

"Not 'we'?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, fine. 'We'. Oh, I'm the Doctor, by the way," the Doctor said, turning and grasping the man's hand. "This is Alex." Alex waved cheerily.

"Guido," Guido muttered.

"Guido! A pleasure to meet you Guido. Couldn't take us to this Calvieri school could you?"

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

"Right," whispered the Doctor, sticking his head around the corner and taking a peek at the Calvieri building in front of him. "You know what to do?" he asked Guido, who nodded confidently. "Keep close behind me," he muttered to Alex. "And keep quiet." The Doctor took one more look around the corner before nodding towards Guido.

Guido stormed out from behind the building and marched boldly towards the school. "You have my daughter," Guido said angrily to the guards as he approached. "Isabella!"

"No, you're not coming in," the guard told him. Guido struggled against him, trying to get to the gates. The guards attempted to hold him back.

"Okay," the Doctor whispered. He beckoned and he and Alex silently jogged past the guards and arrived at the side gate into the building, one meant for deliveries by gondola.

"You have my daughter! Isabella!" Guido heightened the volume of his shouts as the Doctor soniced the gate and opened it as quietly as he could. "I demand you let me see my daughter! Isabella! It's me!"

The Doctor swung the gate open and ran to the front gate, waving to Guido to show that he was in. Guido took a deep sigh and walked away. The Doctor turned to Alex and put a finger to his lips. He beckoned and they tip-toed down a passageway nearby.

"So what're we looking for?" Alex whispered as they walked down the seemingly endless corridor.

"No idea. Throne room?"

"Dungeon?" Alex asked, looking down a well-hidden flight of roughly-cut steps that descended well below ground level. The Doctor backtracked and glanced down them too. He smiled and began to climb down. They arrived in a room that looked like some sort of crypt.

"What's this then?" Alex asked, taking a fleeting look around the empty room. "Crypt?"

"Dunno why they'd need a crypt," the Doctor replied. "Hello handsome!"

Alex spun around quickly, thinking someone had walked into the room. He rolled his eyes when he found the Doctor talking to himself in a mirror. He sighed and turned back to the crypt-like doors, thinking he might find something inside.

"Doctor," Alex muttered, eyed widened in surprise.

"What?" the Doctor asked, checking the shape of his teeth in the mirror.

"Who are you?" asked the girls in unison. There were five of them, incredibly pale to the point of being white, and all dressed in the same plain, cream-coloured dress. Though they had varying facial features and hair colours, all five girls looked eerily identical.

The Doctor stared at the girls in shock. The girls stared back. "Alex, look at this," he motioned for him to look in the mirror.

"Isn't this slightly more important?" he replied, also staring at the girls.

"Just look." He stared from the girls to the mirror behind him and back again.

"They're not showing up in the mirror!" Alex realised. He too spun on the spot, looking between the girls and the mirror.

"How are you doing that? I am loving it! You're like Houdini, only five slightly scary girls and he was shorter. Will be shorter. I'm rambling."

"I'll ask you again, Signors. Who are you?"

"Just passing by," Alex waved the question away. "Doctor. I think travelling with you's made me mad..."

"Why d'you say that?"

"Eerie girls, pale as anything, don't show up in a mirror, don't like sunlight. You know what that screams?"

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, yes I do. Glad I'm not the only one. But the city. Why shut down the city? Unless-"

"Leave now, signors," they said as one, menacingly. "Or we shall call for the steward. If you're lucky!"

The Doctor smiled. In contrast, Alex was backing towards the stone steps back to the surface. "Oh look at the time, we really must be off," Alex said, seizing the Doctor by the collar of his jacket and pulling him towards the stairs. As he did so, the girls snarled and bared fangs, sharp as razors and inches long.

The Doctor succumbed to Alex's pulling, and turned to follow him up the stairs. Suddenly, he stopped and turned to face the girls once more. "Tell me the whole plan!" No reply. "One day that'll work. Listen, I would love to stay... this whole thing. I'm thrilled. Oh, this is Christmas!"

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

The Doctor and Alex sped through the now deserted streets of Venice, eventually meeting up with Amy and Rory. The Doctor then led the group to Guido's house as he filled them in on what had happened. They in turn filled him and Alex in on their experiences. After a short walk, the Doctor knocked on the door of a house. The door opened a crack and an eye appeared, checking who it was. The door then swung open and Guido ushered the four of them inside.

"They _are_ animals then," Guido said, after the Doctor had explained what had happened. "Those teeth."

"In a manner of speaking, yeah. You're right, we need to get Isabella out of there. Any ideas how?"

Guido produced a map of Venice and placed it on the table so everyone could see. The Doctor, Alex and Amy gathered around it, while Rory took a seat on a barrel and put his face in his hands. "As you saw, there is no clear way in. The house of Calvieri is like a fortress. But there is a tunnel underneath it," he smiled as he traced the tunnel on the map with his finger. "And a ladder and shaft that leads up into the house."

"No guards or anything?" Alex asked.

Not on the outside, but on the inside I cannot say. I tried to get in once, but I hit a trapdoor."

"You need someone on the inside," Amy told him.

"No."

"You don't even know what I was gonna say," Amy replied defensively.

"That we pretend you're an applicant to the school to get you inside, and tonight you come down and open the trapdoor to let us in?"

"Oh. So you did know what I was gonna say."

"Are you insane?" Rory asked incredulously.

"We don't have another option,"

"He said no, Amy. Listen to him."

"There is another option," Guido interrupted. He smiled and pointed towards Rory. Rory frowned in confusion, pointing to himself. "I work at the Arsenale. We build the warships for the navy."

The Doctor went over to the barrels behind Rory and inhaled deeply. "Gunpowder?" he surmised. He put a hand on Rory's shoulder, whose eyes widened. He attempted to shift away from the barrels slowly and quietly. "Most people just nick stationary from where they work! Look," he said, leaving the barrels and a paralysed Rory behind and walking back to the table. "I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosives."

"What if we just used a bit of it? To blow the trapdoor?" Alex suggested.

"Too conspicuous," the Doctor shook his head.

Amy smiled. "I'd be there three, four hours, tops..."

"No! No, no, no no no no no no. Can't keep happening like this, this is how they work!" The Doctor took a seat and a deep breath, his head in his hands. "But I have to know. We go together, say you're my daughter,"

"What?" Rory cried. "Don't listen to him," he pleaded, going up to Amy.

"Daughter? You look about nine!"

"Well then, his daughter," the Doctor said, gesturing towards Alex.

"I look no older than you!" Alex pointed out.

"Brother then. We'll both go."

"Too weird. Fiancé," she smiled, turning to Alex.

"I'm not having him run around telling people he's your fiancé," Rory said indignantly.

Amy seemed to think for a moment or two. "No. No you're right," she conceded. Rory nodded. "They've already seen these two! You should do it!"

"...Me?" Rory stammered.

"Yeah! You can be my brother!" she said, tousling his hair playfully.

"Why is him being your brother weird, but with me it's okay?"

"Actually, I thought you were her fiancé," Guido butted in, pointing at Alex.

"Yeah, that's not helping."

"This whole thing is _mental_!" Rory cried, glaring at Amy irritably. "They're _vampires_, for God's sake!"

"We hope," the Doctor said with a deep breath. No-one spoke for a second, letting the impact of this seep through.

"So if they're not vampires..?" Amy mused.

"Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire," the Doctor muttered, baring his teeth.


	24. The Vampires of Venice: Two

_So much for fewer updates. I've been _ploughing_ through Vampires of Venice! Enjoy, favourite, review and all that jazz :) Part three already started, so shouldn't be _too_ long._

Vampires of Venice – Part Two

The Doctor, Alex and Rory sat together in a gondola, uncomfortably pressed together. Guido was acting as their gondolier and had also supplied Rory with some more contemporary clothing. The Doctor had decided that Alex's plain clothes, while they didn't exactly fit in, would go relatively un-noticed. In contrast, Rory's bright red top with a photo of himself and Amy on it had to go.

"She'll be fine," the Doctor assured Rory, who had barely spoken a word with worry since arriving back from the Calvieri house alone.

"You can promise me that, can you?"

"Guys," Alex whispered, interrupting. He put a finger to his lips. They had arrived. Guido landed the boat on the bank of the canal and pointed them towards a small metal gate at the opposite end of the courtyard. The Doctor lit his flaming torch and got out of the gondola, silently shaking Guido's hand and leading Rory and Alex towards the door.

"Right," he said. "Okay, I'll go first. If anything happens to me-"

"What happened?" Rory interrupted. "Between you and Amy?"

"You _know_ about that?" Alex asked in surprise, nearly forgetting to keep his voice down.

"What, did something else happen?" Rory asked in an accusatory tone.

"_Now_?" whispered the Doctor harshly, saving Alex from responding. "You want to do this _now_?" He rolled his eyes and walked up some rickety wooden stairs to the door to the tunnel.

"I have a right to know! I'm getting married in 430 years!"

"Look," the Doctor said as he soniced the door and pushed it open. "She was frightened. We all were, we nearly died! But we survived, y'know, and the relief of it, so she kissed us."

"'US'?" Rory shouted, rounding on Alex.

"Cheers Doctor. Rory, like he said, it was just relief! As soon as we reminded her of what she was doing, she backed off,"

"Come on!" the Doctor called again, as quietly as he could.

"Fine," Rory sighed, defeated. "My fiancé's kissed two other men, but it's okay, because we're going to rescue her from vampires that may, or may not be vampires."

"Oh for God's sake Rory," the Doctor said, almost angrily. "She kissed us because we were there. Okay? It would've been you, it _should've_ been you!"

"Yeah, it should've been me."

"That's why I've brought you here." No sooner had the Doctor finished his sentence than a great gust of wind blew through the tunnel, extinguishing the Doctor's torch and plunging the three into total darkness. "Can we go and see the _vampires_ now please?" the Doctor muttered.

"Wait," said Alex, feeling his way along the wall. "I'm sure we were near the end of the tun- _ow_," he said as he walked into the rungs of a ladder with a dull thud. "Found it," he said, rubbing his forehead.

"Ah good. Now, I'll go first. If anything happens, you both turn back and go back to Guido. You sail away from here. Understand?" Alex and Rory both nodded their agreement, before remembering the Doctor couldn't see them. He seemed to take their silence and confirmation, and clambered up the ladder. He soon reached the top and pushed the trapdoor open. A faint light streamed into the tunnel.

"See? She's fine," Alex murmured to Rory as the Doctor successfully climbed into the room above and Alex began to climb.

"Yeah, fine," Rory mumbled as he brought up the rear.

"Amy! Amy?" the Doctor whispered in the room above the trapdoor. It was large and circular, with a high ceiling for a room so far below ground level. "Where's Amy?"

"Can't see a thing," Rory whispered as he scrambled out of the trapdoor. "Just as well I brought this." Rory pulled an absolutely miniscule torch from his pocket and turned it on, shining it around the room.

In response, the Doctor drew a great light, over a foot long out of his inside jacket pocket and held it aloft, its light brightening up their surroundings significantly. "Ultra-violet. Portable sunlight."

"Yours is bigger than mine."

"Let's not go there."

Alex left the Doctor and Rory to argue and began to walk the perimeter of the room, looking for clues. There seemed to be many doors off of it, under large stone arches, but no feasible method of opening them. Eventually, he came to a bigger door, a heavier one, one that opened. He heaved and it shifted, slowly but surely. Behind the door was a dark stone staircase. Alex couldn't see the top of it.

A creaking and a shout of surprise from Rory caused Alex to turn around quickly. The Doctor had opened an old chest to reveal a blackened, smouldering corpse dumped inside.

"What happened to them?" Rory whispered.

"Oh my God," Alex murmured in disgust as he caught a close-up glimpse at what was inside the chest.

"They've had all the moisture taken out of them," the Doctor theorised, touching the body's stick-thin arm that was hanging limply over the side of the box.

"But why?" Alex asked as he hesitantly approached the corpse and put his hand on the arm, cringing.

"That's what vampires do, right? Drink your blood and replace it with their own?"

"This is more than just blood though," Alex pointed out. "Look at them."

"They've had all the water in their entire bodies taken away," the Doctor grimaced, holding his sunlight high above the chest so the light bathed everything within.

Rory was keeping his distance. "Why are they dead? Why aren't they like the girls in the school?"

The Doctor looked up from analysing the body, frowning. "Maybe not everyone survives the process."

Rory didn't accept this explanation. He swiped Guido's hat from his head and turned his back on the Doctor and Alex angrily. "Y'know what's dangerous about you," he told the Doctor. "It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."

"Who are you?" asked six familiar voices as one, stopping the Doctor or Alex from forming any sort of response. The six girls emerged from one arched door each, the ones that had been locked fast just moments before. The girls walked slowly towards the three of them menacingly. They bared their fangs and snarled, grinning maliciously.

"We should run! Run!" the Doctor cried as he brandished his UV torch at the girls. They recoiled in agony.

"Through here!" Alex called, racing towards the door he'd already opened. Thankfully, no vampire had emerged from their only exit. Rory and the Doctor followed him through quickly, and the Doctor soniced the door behind them. He then sprinted up the pitch-black steps and pushed open the door at the top.

"But we can't get back that way now!" Rory called to the Doctor.

"Never mind that Rory, come on!"

The three of them hurried along a corridor that had much more beautiful decor than Guido's house. Alex supposed they were in the actual Calvieri house now. The girls had probably already raised the alarm, so they had minutes to find Amy and Isabella. Or less than that. The three of them skidded to a halt as three people stood spread across the corridor, furiously glaring at them. One was a tall, middle-aged woman dressed in a fancy Venetian dress. One was a much younger man, dressed in similarly posh clothes, with a cape flowing down his back and a sword tucked inside a scabbard on his belt. The third man stood awkwardly, dressed in what seemed to be servant's clothes.

"Cab for Amy Pond?" the Doctor tried.

"This rescue plan," the woman said smugly as the vampire girls piled into the corridor from where the trio had just come from. "Not exactly watertight, is it?"

The Doctor laughed and wielded his light again, waving it in front of the girls' faces. They shrunk away, snarling angrily.

"Rory!" called a familiar voice. Amy and another girl emerged from a corridor to the side.

"Quickly, through here!" the girl called, sprinting back down the corridor she and Amy had just arrived from.

Amy pulled Rory down the corridor by the hand, and the Doctor pushed Alex to make him follow. He walked backwards into it, still holding the light aloft to keep the vampires at bay. The moment he turned and ran, the vampire girls swarmed into the passage, followed by the young vampire man.

"Come on," called the girl, who Alex assumed was Isabella. They arrived in a smaller stone room, with a green light pulsating from the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a wooden char with arm and neck straps, with a hook hanging from the ceiling above. "Get through!" Isabella ordered. She had opened a door to the side of the room. They all crowded through it and down yet another stone staircase.

"They're not vampires," Amy announced as they hurried down the stairs.

"What?" asked the Doctor as he stopped to sonic the door shut behind them.

"I saw them, I saw her. They're not vampires; they're aliens!"

Alex grinned at this fact as they arrived at the bottom of the staircase and went through one last door. They emerged back into the circular room with the tunnel in the middle. They had evidently entered the room through one of the doors the girls had earlier. He ran over to the grate hiding the tunnel and heaved it open. "Down the ladder, everyone, quickly," he ordered. Isabella went first, followed by Amy and Rory.

"Go on then," the Doctor told him as Rory disappeared from sight.

"No, you go, they need the light. I'll go last. You need to unlock the door at the other end anyway."

The Doctor seemed to argue with himself internally, torn between keeping Alex safe this end and keeping the others safe the other end. "Fine!" he said eventually, leaping into the tunnel.

Alex climbed inside and pulled the grate shut as he heard the door to the room get forced off of its hinges and seven sets of footsteps run inside, towards the grate. He quickened his pace. "Go!" he shouted to the others, who were waiting for him at the bottom. They immediately turned and fled down the tunnel for their lives.

The tunnel seemed to have increased in length in the short time they'd been out of it. They had barely been running for ten seconds when Alex had fast footsteps coming from somewhere behind him. He looked back to see the man gaining on then, holding a flaming torch. "Doctor, give me the light!" Alex called to him. He turned and passed it to Alex before continuing running. Alex waved it down the tunnel and resumed the escape. Eventually, they approached the door. Rory and Amy exited. Alex had just about reached the Doctor when he felt an extreme pulling force behind him. The man had seized the scruff of his neck and was pulling back. Alex, panicking, saw the Sonic Screwdriver sticking out of the Doctor's back pocket. He seized it and threw the UV light out of the door. The girls swarmed Isabella and pulled her back inside too as the Doctor left through the door. It slammed shut. Alex subtly stuffed the Sonic into his pocket as the man roughly held Alex's arms behind his back.

"Stop struggling boy," he said nastily, running his tongue through his razor sharp teeth. "I don't like it when food plays games..."

"Francesco!" called the woman's voice from the end of the tunnel. "Bring them back to me. Immediately."

"Better do what mummy says," Alex whispered to Francesco, who snarled. Eventually, he roughly turned Alex around in the passage and pushed him back down it, arms still pinned behind his back. The passage was so narrow that Alex couldn't even offer some words of consolation to Isabella. All he could do was try to shift his leg surreptitiously as he walked so the Screwdriver was better-hidden, and hope he would be able to use it to escape with Isabella at some later time...

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

Francesco forced Alex through the passages of the Calvieri house until they arrived at the top of a staircase. Francesco opened it and pushed Alex inside. He told a nearby soldier to guard the door and slammed it shut. Alex looked around the room. It was a bedroom, also circular and also with a high ceiling. There were eight beds around the edge of the room. Alex sighed and strolled over to the large window on one side of the room. He tried to look down to the ground, but the window was angled so that he had no idea how high he was. Alex remembered the Sonic Screwdriver in his pocket. He removed it and smiled.

"Hope the Doctor doesn't need you," he muttered as he pointed it towards the window. Great sprawling cracks spread through the window frame. Alex tapped it fairly forcefully and the window shattered, glass cascading out onto the street below. Alex stuck his head out of the hole in the glass and looked down. He was at least four floors up. No chance was he jumping that.

He sighed and looked around again. Only one of the eight beds looked untouched. He settled down onto it, assuming the bed was Amy's, since she was the only applicant to the school to not have spent a night there. How long he spent lying there, he didn't know. Eventually, the door to the room was thrown open.

"Keep the curtains closed," snarled Francesco as he shielded his eyes from the sun streaming in through the broken window. He smiled when he noticed the shattered glass, apparently finding Alex's escape attempt funny. "Come with me," he ordered.

"Why?" Alex asked, not moving.

Francesco bared his teeth and seized Alex by the arm, forcefully pulling him off of the bed so he tumbled onto the floor. "Because I said so. Get up." Without waiting for Alex to do so, Francesco pulled Alex to his feet by his top and threw him out of the door. He marched him through the house, barking out orders for where he should turn, keeping his sword touching Alex's back between the shoulder blades at all times. He had made clear that any attempt to escape would "not last long". They soon came to a large door, which Francesco took as one more opportunity to push Alex. They burst through it and Alex found himself on a sort of dock. The woman – Rosanna – stood at the front of the vampire girls, all of whom smiled seductively at Alex, teeth bared. Carlo, the servant, stood at the front, holding a roll of parchment, along with a man in armour, holding a long spear.

"If you're clever, you won't try to escape," Francesco said to Alex, leaving his side and taking his place next to his mother.

Alex saw Isabella standing to one side of the dock and walked over to her. "Are you okay? Have they done anything to you?" he asked her.

She shook her head, plainly terrified. "What's going to happen? What have they done to me?" she whispered, shaking.

"I don't know yet. But we're going to find out," Alex assured her. "Me, the Doctor, your father, we're all here, and we're going to get out of here, I promise,"

"But why does the sunlight burn me so? Why do I see nothing but my surroundings when I look into a mirror?"

"Bring forward the traitor," called Rosanna. The Guard marched over to Alex and Isabella and seized her by the wrist. He dragged her over to the edge of the dock where, Alex noticed, a long plank of wood extended over the water of the canal.

"I promise," Alex repeated to her as she was hauled away.

The guard positioned Isabella on the edge of the plank of wood and stepped back. Carlo walked forward and unrolled the parchment, reading from it. "And so in memory of those lost to the Silence, the traitor is delivered to the arms of those she betrayed." He re-rolled the parchment and nodded to the guard.

"She isn't a _traitor_," Alex spat as the guard stepped forward and poked Isabella forward with his spear.

"Silence," commanded Francesco, not turning to look at Alex.

"Do you expect me to drown?" Isabella shouted as she neared the edge of the plank. "I'm Venetian! I can swim! We can all swim!"

Alex frowned, confused as Isabella stood on the very tip of the plank. The water below it was bubbling violently and a strange screeching noise was coming from it. The guard poked Isabella with his spear one last time and she tumbled into the canal.

"What's in there?" Alex asked frantically as Isabella began to struggle to stay afloat.

"I said silence!" Francesco ordered, raising his voice now.

"Something touched my leg!" Isabella screeched as she was pulled under the water by it. She re-emerged. "They're all around me! They bite!"

"Isabella, get out!" Alex shouted anxiously. Isabella couldn't hear him. She was pulled under once more. She didn't come back to the surface. No-one on the dock spoke as the bubbling in the water subsided. "What was that?" Alex whispered, seething.

"Traitors must be executed," Rosanna said simply.

"She did nothing to you!" Alex shouted furiously, as he was restrained by a guard he didn't even know was behind him. "Tell me! Tell me how you're any worse-off now that Amy escaped!"

"She was committed to the cause, and then betrayed her brothers and sisters."

"You _made_ them her brothers and sisters! You stole her humanity and made her a... thing!"

Rosanna turned and strode towards Alex, who returned the glare with venom in his eyes. "Regardless. She complicated our plans. She had to be eliminated."

"And what about me?" Alex asked, struggling against the man's grip on him. "Second course for them?" he nodded towards the canal.

"Oh no!" Rosanna laughed. "That's far too easy a death for you. No. I want to find out more about you and your friends yet. Why you're in the dark ages with such technology. Carlo! Take the child back to his room. Leave us."

Carlo clapped. The vampire girls filed through the door and back inside. The guard, still holding Alex's arms behind his back forced Alex through it and back through the maze of a house back towards the bedroom. Carlo followed. Alex was once more thrown into the bedroom and the guard stomped away.

"Oi, Carlo," Alex said as he got to his feet. Carlo stopped in the doorway and looked back. "Why're you doing this?"

"To reinstate the glory of the Saturnyne Race," he reeled off, almost as if he'd been taught to.

"No, no. Why're _you_ doing this? Because you're not one of them, you're as human as anyone in this city."

"Our plan must proceed."

"_Our_ plan, Carlo? Or _her_ plan?"

Carlo didn't reply. He swallowed before turning back to the door. "You will stay here until Signora Calvieri calls for you." He left without another word. Alex smiled and sat on the bed. Everything was almost set.

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

Alex opened the door to the bedroom and poked his head outside it. The guard standing outside twisted around and snarled furiously, baring vampiric fangs.

"Sorry. Just checking," Alex smiled and closed the door again. He heard the guard re-lock the door as Alex pocketed the Sonic. He ran over to the smashed window and looked outside at the sun. It was just beginning to set. Perfect. Suddenly, is the distance, there was a huge bang, and a colossal plume of smoke billowed into the sky. Frowning, but pushing the thought to the back of his head, he used the Screwdriver to snap off a piece of glass from the bottom of the semi-shattered window-frame. He then waited. If this didn't work, he thought, he was almost certainly dead. Then again, if it did work, he was almost certainly home free. Ish.

"Come on," Alex whispered as sunlight began to make its way into the room as the sun continued its descent. "Nearly there. Come on." After another few minutes, enough sun was streaming into the room for the plan to be put in place. Alex took up his position, before picking up one of the vampire girl's books and launching it towards the door.

"Oi!" he shouted. "I need to ask you something!" he chucked another book at the door.

"What?" growled the guard.

"No, come in. I can't ask you behind a door." He threw a third book.

"Stand back from the door," the guard said menacingly. "If you try to escape, I'll kill you."

That didn't faze Alex. If this failed, he'd be dead anyway. "I'm by the beds," he called. He readied himself. No turning back now.

The door swung open and the guard stepped into the room. He growled furiously and shielded his face as the sun reflected powerfully off of the shard of glass in Alex's hand and directly into his face. Alex winced but kept the glass steady. The guard screamed in agony and tried to get closer to Alex, but Alex held his ground. He unleashed one final scream and disintegrated into dust, a thin, black powder settling on the ground where he had stood moments before.

Alex didn't move for a moment, shocked at what he'd just done. He then realised that the guard's shouts will probably have alerted others to what had happened. He seized the Sonic and ran out of the room, locking the door behind him. He tried to remember the route he'd been taken when he'd been captured in the tunnels...

It wasn't long before Alex was hopelessly lost. Guido was right. The house of Calvieri _was_ like a fortress. There was a creak of a floorboard down the corridor behind him. Alex span around on the spot, drawing the Screwdriver and extending its claws, holding it aloft as if it were a gun. "How do I get out of here Carlo?" Alex asked him, walking forwards slowly, pointing the Screwdriver at him.

"I should tell Signora Calvieri that you've escaped," Carlo told Alex.

He lowered the Screwdriver slightly. "Then why haven't you?"

Carlo sighed, fighting an internal battle. "Down that staircase, third door on your right should lead you to Signora Calvieri's throne room. If you can get through there, there's a staircase to the street level, where you should be able to escape easily enough."

Alex turned to follow Carlo's directions, before stopping himself. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?"

Carlo didn't reply. He glanced out of a nearby window and picked up a sack at his feet. He hauled it over his shoulder and ran away down the corridor. Alex turned and went as Carlo had directed him. He also looked out of the window. The skies outside had greyed significantly and clouds were rolling in. Alex soon came to the third door on the right and pushed it open. He was in another corridor. He looked to his right, through some stone arches and saw a sight for incredibly sore eyes.


	25. The Vampires of Venice: Three

_Noticed a goof in the previous part. I probably should have had Alex escape as sun_rise, _rather than sun_set_. Ah well. Very short part here. Only had six minutes left of the episode to transcribe (some of which I cut out), but there we go! We're also going to go straight into Amy's Choice next without a Meanwhile in the TARDIS. All shall be explained next time! Review this if you love Alex! :P (By whom I mean the story Alex, not me Alex. Although review if you love me too ;) )_

Vampires of Venice – Part Three 

"Doctor!" Alex called, running to the final door and sonicing it open. The Doctor was in Rosanna's throne room, having opened the throne and was analysing the interior workings of it. There were wires sprawling out of it and bright pulsating lights.

"Alex!" the Doctor cried, turning at the sound of his name. "So you escaped then! Good, you've saved me a job."

"Shut up," Alex grinned, pulling the Doctor into a one-armed hug. "Need this?" he asked, holding up the Sonic.

"Thief," he grinned and snatched it from Alex's hand, turning back to the throne.

"So what's going on? What's she going to do?"

"If I can work out this chair... nothing!" he said as he pulled a wire from it. Nothing happened.

"You're too late," said Rosanna. Alex and the Doctor swivelled on the spot, neither of them having noticed her enter. "Such determination! Just to save one city! Hard to believe this is the same man who let an entire race turn to cinders and ash."

"So think what he's going to do to you," Alex muttered.

"Think what I've _done_ to you," the Doctor corrected. "The girls are gone, Rosanna."

Rosanna's face fell. She frowned, confused. "You're lying," she said, face full of worry.

"Shouldn't I be dead?"

Without another word, Rosanna gave one last piercing glare to the Doctor, turned on her heel and walked from the room, defeated.

"Rosanna, please, help us! There are 200,000 people in this city!"

"So save them."

The throne began to beep. The Doctor turned to it and soniced it helplessly.

"So what's she doing?" Alex asked as the Doctor poked around inside it.

"She _was_ going to sink Venice and repopulate it with her own race. Now the girls are dead, so she's just going to let 200,000 people die,"

"The girls are dead?" Alex asked in surprise.

"Guido sacrificed himself," the Doctor explained. "Blew himself up. Now, get back to the TARDIS. Amy and Rory are there, I'll be fine on my own, you go get yourself to safety."

"No!" Alex protested. "You can't stop this on your own. You don't even know what you're doing!"

"Yes, I do! This chair started the storm, which triggers earthquakes which cause floods; I just need to turn the chair off!"

"And how do you do that?"

I'll do an extremely clever thing, now go back to Amy and Ror-"

"Doctor!" Amy cried as she and Rory ran into the room. "Alex!" she said happily, noticing him.

"Get out, I need to stabilise the storm!" the Doctor shouted, bending down in front of the chair and opening its mainframe. A jumble of wires and lights lay within.

"We're not leaving you,"

"So one minute, it's all 'you make people a danger to themselves', and the next it's 'we're not leaving you', but if one of you three gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets bl-"

The four of them were thrown violently to the ground as the entire room quaked. Dust and rubble fell from the ceiling. Alex rolled out of the way of a fairly hefty piece of ceiling as it collapsed from above.

The Doctor pulled Alex to his feet. "See, squashed!"

"What was that?"

"Nothing," the Doctor assured them. "Bit of an earthquake."

"An earthquake?" Amy cried as she staggered to her feet with the help of Rory.

"Manipulate the elements, it can trigger earthquakes. But don't worry about that. Worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake,"

"Well, you'd better stop them then," Alex said breathlessly.

"That would be good wouldn't it? Now then, you three, Rosanna's throne is the control hub, but she's locked the programme, so, tear out every single wire and circuit in the throne," he ordered them, showing his point by yanking a wire out of the chair. Sparks flew off of it. "Go crazy. Hit it with a stick. Anything. We need it to shut down and reroute control to the secondary hub which I'm guessing would also be the generator. Now. Get to work, I'll go and do my own clever thing." With that, the Doctor ran out of the door and up a flight of stairs to the tower above.

"Well come on," Rory called to Alex and Amy, both of whom were watching where the Doctor had just run. They hurriedly joined him.

"Should you two even be doing this? You're soaking wet," Alex pointed out as he pulled a wire out of the chair, unleashing another shower of sparks.

"Probably not." Amy shrieked as the chair exploded in sparks.

"What's he even doing?" asked Rory. "He speaks too fast."

"You get used to it. As far as I can tell, this chair's controlling the storms. If we destroy the chair, then control of the storms goes to the generator on the roof, which the Doctor can turn off easily."

"Oh," Rory said simply. "Why couldn't he say it like that?"

"He likes to overcomplicate things," Amy said, shaking her head.

"In short, yeah. I think that's it," Alex announced. He couldn't see any more wires still attached, or any mechanisms at all.

Amy and Rory agreed, so they ran through the nearby door to street level and outside. Hundreds of people were running around, screaming in terror, shielding their heads and faces from the rain as though it were acid. The skies had truly opened; it was raining harder than Alex had ever seen it.

Rory suddenly pointed up to the tower. "There he is!" Following his finger, Alex saw that Rory was right. The Doctor appeared to be scaling the tower of the Calvieri house using a thin wire to hold himself to the building. "Come on!" Rory shouted as the Doctor reached the top. He opened the model on the top of the building and seemed to fluster over what to do next.

"Come on!" Rory, Amy and Alex shouted together. Suddenly, the rain slowed. Before long, it had stopped completely, and the clouds disappeared before Alex's very eyes. Sunlight shone down on them as if the storm had never happened.

They laughed. Amy and Rory hugged, laughing happily, before Amy turned and hugged Alex too. Alex then pulled Rory into a man-hug, as the Venetians around cheered and clapped. The Doctor on the roof acknowledged the people's cheers, oblivious to the fact that they weren't actually cheering him.

V A M P I R E S O F V E N I C E

"Now then!" the Doctor said happily as they left the gates of the inner-city and headed towards the TARDIS. "What about you two eh? Next stop: Leadworth Registry Office! Maybe I can give you away!"

"Well then what I am going to do?" laughed Alex.

"Best man!" the Doctor replied grinning.

"I'm sure Rory's already got one of them-"

"Stay!" Amy said to Rory as they caught up with Alex and the Doctor. "With us, please. Just for a bit, please. I want you to stay," she smiled.

Rory glanced hopefully towards the Doctor. "Fine with me!" he said, nodding happily.

"Yeah? Then yes, I would like that!"

"Nice one!" Amy kissed Rory briefly and began to unlock the TARDIS. "I will pop the kettle on! Hey, look at this! Got my spaceship, got my three boys! My work here is done." With that, she pushed the doors open and waltzed inside, head held high.

"Nice one indeed!" Alex said, clapping Rory on the shoulder and following Amy inside. Rory followed, patting Alex on the back cheerily. Amy had already disappeared to the kitchen by the time Alex had reached the console level. Looking back to the door, Rory and the Doctor were still milling about inside.

"Kettle's on," Amy told him as she re-emerged from one of the staircases into the console room. Alex turned to look at her as she appeared. "What was what?"

"What, 'what was what'?" Alex repeated.

"You said you sa-"

"Right then!" the Doctor interrupted, jumping up to the console level happily. "New team member; that's very exciting. Where to first?"


	26. Amy's Choice: One

_Okay, episode seven! We're getting there! I've skipped the Meanwhile in the TARDIS here because it would kind of ruin the which-world-is-the-dream aspect of this episode. So I thought I'd go straight into Amy's Choice :)_

_Oh, that reminds me. A few of you have asked if I'm going to write Series 6 with Alex too. I am indeed! In fact, I've already written two or three scenes from the opening two-parter, and I've worked out where Alex is going to be for the vast majority of the first five episodes._

_We're into exam season in England now, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update this. Oh, also, to help me get to know Alex's character more, I've started to insert him in other things: Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter etc. I might upload these scenes at some point, just for you, my loyal fans ;)_

Amy's Choice – Part One

"Y'know what?" said the Doctor as he pulled a lever on the console. "I think we deserve a break. A nice, relaxing mini-break. What d'you think?"

"A mini-break?" Alex laughed. "Relaxing? You?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with _that_, it's _you_ that's the problem," Alex smiled. The Doctor looked at him, frowning in confusion. "You know full-well you'd get bored stiff!"

"Would not! Anyway, too late now." He pulled the landing lever. "We're here. Somewhere really relaxing. Now, come on." The Doctor picked up his tweed jacket from a chair and put it on, before running towards the front doors of the TARDIS. Alex, laughing, followed him. The Doctor stumbled as he stepped out of the doors. Alex was more careful as he stepped outside. They'd landed in front of a big old village house.

"Rory!" the Doctor cried happily as a man walked out of the house.

"Hello!" Rory called back to them as he walked through the garden towards them. Alex grinned at him in greeting.

"I've crushed your flowers," the Doctor mentioned, gesturing to the TARDIS' landing spot on a large flower bed.

"Oh. Amy will kill you..."

"Where is she?"

"Never mind that," Alex interrupted, gazing in surprise at Rory. "What's with the hair, Rory?"

"Oh blimey," the Doctor said, now noticing the ponytail creeping down the back of Rory's neck. "Miss an appointment at the barber's did you?"

"Hey!" came a familiar voice from the direction of the house. Alex and the Doctor turned to see Amy waddling down the garden path, with a surprisingly large belly...

"Bloody hell!" Alex cried, eyes wide and laughing as the Doctor pointed at her stomach and cheered.

"You've swallowed a planet!" the Doctor told her.

"I'm pregnant!" she replied giddily.

"Nice," Alex nodded to Rory, who shrugged modestly.

"You're _huge_!"

"Yeah. I'm pregnant."

"Look at you, when worlds collide! Oh, look at you both, five years later and you haven't changed a bit! Apart from age, and size..." the Doctor tailed off, gawping at Amy's stomach again.

"Oh, it's good to see you two," Amy smiled, shifting her eyes between the Doctor and Alex happily.

"Are you pregnant?" the Doctor asked.

Amy rolled her eyes, laughing. "Come on!" she said, grabbing Alex and the Doctor by the hand and pulling them towards the garden gate. "We need to give you the tour of the village,"

"We've been here before," Alex pointed out as they turned left on the road and strolled up it, a picturesque field to their right and lots of similar, big and old houses on their left.

"No, that was a different area," Amy insisted. "Come on! It's much better here," Amy led them down the road. They took a left, along another thin village lane, across a green and emerged into what Alex assumed was meant to be the village centre. It wasn't exactly bustling. They strolled up another path in silence, houses on one side and a church on the other.

"Ah," the Doctor eventually announced. "Leadworth. Vibrant as ever."

"It's Upper Leadworth actually. We've gone slightly upmarket," Rory informed them rather proudly.

"Sorry Rory," Alex said, taking a look around. "But it looks... kind of the same..."

"Most villages do," Rory replied. "It's fine. I like it here. It's quiet."

"And relaxing," Alex muttered, shooting a look at the Doctor.

"Well, yes, good point. Where is everyone?"

"This is busy." The Doctor looked at Amy in disbelief and made a point of looking around. There was one person in sight, an elderly lady limping into the building about 200 metres away. "Okay, it's quiet," Amy went on, defensively. "But it's really restful and... healthy. Most people 'round here live well into their nineties."

"Well don't let that get you down," the Doctor told them as he walked towards an old bench near the gate to the church.

"It's not getting me down," Amy said as she took a seat on it next to the Doctor. Alex sat on the other side of Amy and Rory squeezed in next to the Doctor.

"Well, we wanted to see how you were. You know me; I don't just abandon people-"

"-I'm certainly testament to that-"

"-this Time Lord's for life! You don't get rid of your old pal the Doctor so easily!"

"You came here by mistake didn't you?" Amy asked shrewdly.

"Yeah, but of a mistake." Alex rolled his eyes and nodded, his suspicions confirmed. "But look, what a result. Look at this bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next..?"

A silence fell among the four of them. "So..." Alex tried. "How long's this one been around then?" he gestured to Amy's stomach.

"Just coming up to 34 weeks now," she smiled contentedly, rubbing her belly lovingly.

"And how long've you two been here?"

"Just over two years," Rory smiled and waved at an old woman who walked past the bench.

"And what have you actually done to kill time? In two years," the Doctor asked. Alex could tell from his tone of voice that he was getting a bit bored.

"We relax," Rory began, prompting a look of bewilderment from the Doctor. "We live. We listen to the birds." As Rory mentioned them, Alex suddenly became aware of the really quite loud birdsong coming from the tall trees behind them. "We didn't get a lot of time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS did we?"

"Oh! Blimey, my head's a bit..." the Doctor put a hand to his forehead and groaned.

"You okay?" Alex asked in concern, leaning forward to get a better look at the Doctor.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine. No, Rory, you're right. There wasn't a lot of time for... birdsong... back in the good... old..."

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex awoke with a jump. His head was lolling onto the back of the chair he was sprawled out on.

"What?" called the Doctor's voice. Alex couldn't see him. He staggered to his feet, rubbing his forehead. "No, yes, sorry," the Doctor said as he appeared from the lower level of the console room.

"Was I just asleep?" Alex wondered aloud as Rory and Amy walked into the room too, also looking slightly disorientated.

"I was, don't know about you. But thank God, you're all okay! I had a terrible nightmare. You two, in particular," he muttered, pointing to Amy and Rory. "We were fine," he shrugged at Alex. He leant on the console, breathing heavily. "That was scary... don't ask. You don't wanna know. Safe now," he sighed as he landed a hug on Amy, patted Rory on the head and clapped Alex on the shoulder as he passed. "That's what counts."

"What happened in _your_ dream then?" Alex asked, shaking his head slightly to wake himself up.

"Blimey!" the Doctor said, not hearing. "Never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really."

Alex sat back on the chair and rubbed his face. He looked up to see Amy taking a surreptitious peek at the back of Rory's neck. He caught her eye and they exchanged confused looks.

"I'm gettin' on a bit y'see," the Doctor went on. "Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console? Red flashing lights. I bet they mean something..." He bent down to peer beneath the console.

"Doctor, I also had a sort of dream... thing," Rory announced.

"Yeah, so did I,"

"And me,"

"Not a nightmare though!" Rory assured Amy. "Just... we were married."

"Yeah... in a little village,"

"A sweet little village and you were preg...nant.

"Yes! I was huge! I was a boat!"

"And you had a ponytail!" Alex spoke up, remembering now.

Rory looked from Amy to Alex and back again, confusion creeping over his face. The Doctor crept up behind Rory and also searched the back of his neck.

"So we all had the same dream then..? _Exactly_ the same dream..?"

"Are you calling me a boat?" Amy whispered threateningly.

"And you two were visiting," Rory realised, turning to Alex and the Doctor.

"You took us on a tour of the village," Alex recalled. "Down the road, first left, along the lane and onto the green,"

The Doctor opened Amy's jacket curiously to get a better look at her stomach.

"Yeah... exactly the same dream then, down to the last detail? How is that possible? It doesn't make _any_ sense."

"And you had a nightmare about us? What happened to us in the nightmare?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"It was a bit similar, in some aspects."

"Which aspects?"

"Well, all of them,"

"You had the same dream?"

"Basically."

"You said it was a nightmare,"

Did I say nightmare? No! More sort of a really good... mare," the Doctor tailed off sheepishly. "Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode, we probably just jumped a time track or something. Forget it! We're back to reality now,"

"Tell me you can hear that?" Alex muttered. Reverberating around the console room was the familiar sound of loud birdsong.

Amy nodded, giving Alex a troubled look.

"Doctor, if we're back to reality now," Rory began.

"Then what's that?" Alex finished.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex shook his head to wake himself up. How had he fallen asleep on such an uncomfortable wooden bench on such a cold day?

"Sorry!" called Rory's voice from the other end of the bench. "Nodded off. Stupid! God, I must be over-doing it..."

"I fell asleep too..." Alex leant forward and raised an eyebrow at Rory nervously. The Doctor jumped up from the bench and took a few steps forward.

"Dreamt you were back on the TARDIS..?" Rory asked apprehensively after a pause. Alex nodded grimly.

"And we thought this was the dream didn't we?"

"Think so," Amy winced, struggling to her feet. "Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"

"Doctor, what's going on?" Rory asked the Doctor who had picked up a leaf from the floor and was studying it intently.

"Listen to me. Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear, or feel."

"But we're awake now!" Rory pointed out.

"Yeah, you thought you were awake on the TARDIS,"

"Doctor, we're not dreaming anymore," Alex cried, slapping himself on the cheek to illustrate his point.

"How can you tell? Hm?"

"Because we're home!" Amy said, looking around uncertainly.

"Yeah, you're home, you're also dreaming. Trouble is, Alex, Amy, Rory, which is which? Are we flashing forwards? Or... backwards... Hold on tight. This is gonna be a tricky one."

"A what?" Alex asked, swaying slightly on his feet. He rubbed his eyes as he once again registered the birds singing in the background.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex jolted awake. Again. Back on the TARDIS.

"Oh, this is bad! I don't like this!" shouted the Doctor. He kicked the console in frustration, and let out a cry of agony and proceeded to limp around the room. "Never use force, you'll just embarrass yourself! Unless you're cross, in which case... always use force!"

"Shall I run and get the manual?"

"I threw it in a supernova!" the Doctor told Amy as he hobbled down the stairs.

"You threw the manual in a supernova..? Why?"

"Because I disagreed with it, with stop talking to me when I'm cross!" the Doctor shouted at Amy from below the glass floor.

"Whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?" asked Rory.

"Well, if we were dreaming of the future," the Doctor said as if it were obvious, walking back up the stairs, carrying a number of unusual tools. He dumped them on one of the chairs.

"Well of course we were!" Alex cried. "We're awake now, definitely awake!"

"Yeah? Here's my point," the Doctor said, sizing up to Alex. He slapped him hard around the face.

"_Ow_!" Alex shrieked, stumbling back, putting a hand to his cheek. "What was that for?"

"Y'see? The slap didn't wake you up here, _or_ in Leadworth-"

"-Upper Leadworth-"

"Yeah, we could be in _Upper_ Leadworth right now, dreaming about the TARDIS, or vice versa! Don't you get it?" he asked, handing Amy a spanner. "I told you, trust nothing you see, hear or feel,"

"This _kills_!" Alex cried, nursing his cheek. "Did you have to hit me _that_ hard?"

"Look around you, examine everything! Look for all the details that don't ring true." He took the spanner back off of Amy.

"Okay, well, we're on a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside," Rory began.

"With a bow tie-wearing alien," Amy continued.

"Who just slapped me around the face," Alex went on.

"So maybe 'what rings true'" Rory said, using his fingers to form air-quotations "isn't so simple," he finished.

"Valid point," the Doctor shrugged.

Suddenly, the TARDIS turned dark. All the lights on the console went out and the room became deathly silent, the ambient, ever-present background noises of the console now disappeared.

"What was that?" Alex whispered after a few moments silence.

"It's dead. We're in a dead time machine..."

Before anyone could reply, the sound of birdsong reappeared, much more obvious now that there were no other noises to drown it out. Alex sighed and sat down. Amy and Rory embraced.

"Remember, this is real. But when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels!" the Doctor commanded.

"It _is_ real! I know it's real..."

"My cheek would... agree with you there..." Alex muttered, his eyes drooping...

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

If Alex didn't know better, he would say the tolling bell of the church had awoken him from his slumber. He lifted his head to see the Doctor was already on his feet, taking in the environment.

"Okay, this is the real one. Definitely this one, it's all solid." Amy declared, rubbing her bump lovingly.

"It felt solid in the TARDIS too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it,"

"What about lucid dreams?" Alex asked smugly, getting to his feet as a class of school children ambled past.

The Doctor opened his mouth then closed it again and frowned. "Shut up," he said eventually. He began to wave his hand around in front of his face, examining it.

"Er... what are you doing?" asked Rory uncertainly.

"Looking for motion blur, pixilation, it could be a computer simulation. I don't think so though," he took Rory's face in his hands and stretched the cheeks slightly.

"Hello doctor," greeted an elderly woman as she hobbled past.

"Hello," replied Rory cheerily, waving.

"Hi!" the Doctor said proudly at the same time. The woman gave the Doctor an irritated look and wandered off. "You're a doctor?"

"Yeah. And unlike you, I've actually passed some exams!"

"A doctor, not a nurse. Just like you've always dreamed..." the Doctor began to stride up the road, smiling slightly. "How interesting!"

"What is?" Rory asked as he, Amy and Alex followed, jogging to catch up.

"Well, your dream wife. Your dream job. Probably your dream baby. Maybe this is your dream?" he asked as they came to a halt outside a tall, long building.

"Well it's Amy's dream too. Isn't it Amy?"

"Yes," she answered, almost too quickly. "'Course it is," she chuckled.

"You called it a nightmare, maybe this is _your_ nightmare," Alex theorised.

"Possible, but unlikely. What's that?" he asked Amy, pointing to the building over his shoulder.

"Old people's home," she replied as if the answer were obvious.

Alex followed their line of vision. At first glance, the home seemed a normal country building. Looking closely though, it was odd. There were many a pair of eyes at the windows, lots of twitching curtains. They were being watched.

"You said that everyone here lives to their nineties. There's something that doesn't make sense... let's go and poke it with a stick." Without another word, the Doctor ran towards the home. Alex and Rory sped behind him, with Amy bringing up the rear.

"Oi, you can't just come bursting in like that!" said the receptionist as the Doctor threw the door open and ran past the desk into the front room.

"It's fine, they're with me," Rory assured her hurriedly, holding up a card. She grudgingly waved Alex and Amy into the room, followed by Rory.

"Oh hello Doctor Williams!" said an elderly woman happily as Rory entered the room.

"Hello dear!" said another.

Rory took it in his stride and waved at them all, greeting them happily. Alex frowned, shooting a look at Amy, who returned it with a grimace. 'Old people smell'.

"Hello, Rory love!" said another woman, knitting and sitting on a sofa.

"Hello, Mrs Poggit, how's your hip?"

"A bit stiff-"

"Oh, easy! D-96 compound. Plus... No, you don't have that yet. Forget that."

"Who's this then?" asked Mrs Poggit, gesturing to the Doctor. "A junior doctor?"

Rory seized the opportunity. "Yes..!" The Doctor frowned at him, annoyed.

"Can I borrow you?" she asked the Doctor. Without waiting for an answer, she picked up the jumper she'd been knitting and held it up for the Doctor to try on. "You're the size of my grandson!"

"Er..." the Doctor hesitated, then gave in and climbed inside the jumper. "Slightly keen to move on. Freak psychic schism to sort out." Once inside, he leant forward the looked Mrs Poggit right in the eye. "You're incredibly old aren't you..." he whispered.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex awoke. Again. He was still sprawled out in the chair he'd sat on. The Doctor, Amy and Rory were all slumped over the console, slowly awaking from what looked an incredibly uncomfortable sleeping position.

"Okay. I hate this Doctor. Stop it, 'cos this is definitely real, it's definitely this one! I keep saying that don't I?"

The Doctor didn't respond to Amy. He ran up some stairs to the upper level and bent down to scan something on the wall with the Sonic Screwdriver.

"It's bloody cold," Rory called, folding his arms to keep the heat in.

"Try going up those stairs," Alex said, shivering, returning to the console room. He'd tried to go to the wardrobe to find a jumper. The corridor at the top of the stairs was probably below zero.

"The heating's off," the Doctor announced.

"The heating's off..." Rory repeated sarcastically.

"Put on a jumper, that's what I always do,"

"I tried," Alex muttered.

"Oh yeah, sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though!"

The Doctor looked at the three of them through one of the TARDIS' lights on the wall. "Oh, I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act, if I were you."

"What d'you mean 'act'?" Amy asked incredulously.

"She's an old lady," Alex stated the obvious.

"Everything's off," the Doctor stood back up and walked back to the console level. "Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, some_thing_, is over-riding my controls!"

"Well! That took a while!" said a new voice. Alex jumped and looked around for the source. Eventually, his eyes settled on a portly, balding man stood at the top of the stairs. He was dressed in a tweed jacket, black jeans and an orange-y red bow tie. He strolled down the stairs. "Honestly. I'd heard such good things! Last of the Time Lords! The Oncoming Storm! Him in the bow tie!" he finished with a chuckle.

"How did you get into my TARDIS?" the Doctor asked him warningly.

"What's with the bow tie?" Alex asked, standing at the Doctor's side.

"What, this?" the man asked, chuckling and pulling at the bow tie around his neck. "Didn't you hear? They're "cool", or so my sources tell me."

"What are you?"

"What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord..."

The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an apple, which he threw at the Dream Lord. It travelled straight through him and out the other side. "Interesting..."

"Well... I'd love to be impressed, but erm. Dream Lord. It's in the name isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there..." Suddenly, he disappeared. "And yet very much here!" came his voice from behind them. They span around, Amy gasping and clutching Rory's arm.

"I'll do the talking thank you. Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?"

"Erm... Dream Lord. He creates dreams."

"Dreams, delusions. Cheap tricks."

"And what about the two men?" the Dream Lord asked the Doctor. "Do they get a guess? Then again, men aren't really your thing, are they Doctor? You prefer the company of a female, don't you? Well, I'm not surprised, pretty thing like Amy."

"Hey," Rory started. He shied away at the Dream Lord's stare. "Stay away from her..."

"Oh Amy. That wasn't very valiant, was it?"

"Stop it," Alex told the Dream Lord, far more forcefully than Rory had done.

"Oh, that was a bit better. Amy, I think you've made the wrong choice. Unless you haven't made your choice yet?"

"Of course I've chosen!"

Rory frowned in worry, his eyes shifting from Amy, to Alex, to the Dream Lord, to the Doctor.

"It's you, stupid!" Amy assured him, hitting him on the arm.

"You can't fool me," the Dream Lord disappeared and reappeared again, now standing next to Rory, who stumbled back in surprise. "I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey, I'd blush! If I had a blood supply. Or a real face!

"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" asked the Doctor, showing no apprehension and facing up to the Dream Lord square-on.

"Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground!"

"Am I?"

"If you had any more tawdry quirks, you could open up a tawdry quirk shop!" he sneered. "The madcap vehicle? The cockamamie hair? The clothes designed by a first-year fashion student? I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space-dog! Just to ram home what an intergalactic WAG you are..." he smiled at the Doctor teasingly. "Oh. Where was I?"

"Er, you were-" Rory began

"I know where I was!" the Dream Lord shouted, reappearing on the upper level, overlooking the console room. "So here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real. The other's fake. And, just to make it more interesting, you're going to face, in both worlds, a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real! Tweet tweet! Time to sleep!"

As the Dream Lord spoke, birdsong sounded throughout the room once again. Alex stumbled where he stood, holding onto the console to lower himself to the ground safely.

"Oh... or are you waking up?"


	27. Amy's Choice: Two

_Woo! I've hit 100 reviews – and most of them positive! Thank you all very much! :) I've been struggling with a bit of writer's block lately actually, which is why it's been over a week since the last update. And sorry about any spelling errors. I finished this at about 1 o'clock in the morning, and wanted to get it uploaded! Right, on with the show._

Amy's Choice – Part Two

"Uh!" Alex grunted as he awoke once again, this time on the floor of the old people's home, back in Upper Leadworth. A man entered the room, dressed in a suit and tie, with black, thin-rimmed glasses. They scrambled to their feet.

"This is bad. This is very, very bad," the Dream Lord said as he wandered in, looking at something in his hands, which he held up to the light. "Look at this X-Ray. Your brain is completely see-through! But then, I've always been able to see through you Doctor," he grinned.

"Always?" Amy asked shrewdly. "What do you mean, always?"

The Dream Lord ignored her. "Now then, the prognosis is this. If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality – healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality."

"What happens?" Rory asked after a moment's pause.

"You die, stupid. That's why it's called 'reality'."

"Have you met the Doctor before? Do you know him?" Amy asked him. "Doctor, does he?"

The Dream Lord smiled smugly. "Now don't get jealous! He's been around, our boy. But never mind that! You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor." He formed his thumb and little finger into a makeshift phone. "Take two, and call me in the morning." With that, he disappeared where he stood.

All four of them stared at where he had stood. "Okay," Rory spoke up eventually. "I don't like him."

"Who is he?" Amy, her arms crossed, asked the Doctor, who sat on one of the ancient arm-chairs.

"I don't know..." he replied. Alex raised an eyebrow in disbelief, while Amy tilted her head to the side slightly and frowned. "It's a big Universe," he elaborated.

"Okay, why is he doing this?"

"Maybe because he has no physical form. That get's you down after a while."

"He's _jealous_?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"Nicely summarised. Jealous of folk like us, who can touch and eat and feel." Suddenly, the Doctor realised he was still wearing Mrs Poggit's jumper. He jumped up and removed it swiftly, discarding it onto a nearby sofa.

"What does he mean, deadly danger? Nothing deadly's ever happened here!"

"That was before the Doctor arrived," Alex reminded Rory, who closed his eyes and nodded in agreement.

"They've all gone," the Doctor noted. He was right. The room was entirely empty when they'd fallen asleep. Now, only the Doctor, Alex, Amy and Rory remained. The Doctor abruptly ran towards the door. Again, Alex and Rory were close behind, with Amy waddling, bringing up the rear.

"She's gone too," Alex noted, gesturing to the receptionist's empty desk as they passed through. The Doctor turned to glance at it for half a second, before running outside.

Outside, there were no elderly folk to be seen. Instead, there were about twenty or thirty young children dressed in school uniforms playing around, being supervised by, presumably, teachers. As the four of them left the nursing home, the teachers called the children together and led them away from the play-park and up some wooden stairs to the ruins of a castle.

"Why would they leave?" Rory asked as they walked down the path.

"And how did that help?" Alex chipped in.

"And what did you mean by Mrs Poggit's nice-old-lady act?" Amy finished, toddling down the path behind them.

The Doctor stopped and faced them. "One of my 'tawdry quirks'," he quoted. "Sniffing out things that aren't what they seem. So! Come on. Let's think. The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in. Time asleep exactly matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."

"What's the birdsong about?" Alex asked.

"Well, the Dream Lord needs a way to induce the state of sleep. Think of it like hypnosis!"

"So he's just hypnotising us?"

"No! But it's like he is. Think of it like hypnosis, but it's not hypnosis."

"And we're all dreaming the same thing at the same time?" Rory asked. "Because he's hypnotising us all?"

"A sort of communal trance. Very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell, but my mind isn't working because this _village_ is _so_ DULL!" he shouted to the skies. "I'm slowing down, like you two have."

"Oh!" Amy cried out suddenly. She bent slightly and clutched her bump. "Ow! Really, ow!" She let out an extended, high pitched shriek, that would be almost comical in another state of affairs. "It's coming!"

"Alex, do something!" the Doctor cried.

"Why me?" asked Alex in disbelief, holding onto Amy's arm to keep her steady.

"You've got a little sister!"

"I didn't _birth_ her! You're a doctor, you do something!" he shouted, pointing to Rory. Amy screeched out in agony again, taking deep breaths and grasping Alex's hand tightly.

"_You're_ a Doctor!" Rory in turn shouted at the Doctor.

"It's okay, we're doctors!" the Doctor said. He bent down and held out his hands between Amy's legs as if he were waiting for a cricket ball.

"_What are you_-" Alex began incredulously.

"Okay. It's not coming." Amy's contractions seemed to have stopped as quickly as they had started. Her voice was calm and her face was straight. "This is my life now, and it just turned you white as a sheet. So don't you ever call it dull again. Ever. Okay?"

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth in shock. "Sorry," he murmured sheepishly. Amy strode away towards the swings and took a seat and crossed her arms, a face like thunder. Rory followed and comforted her, putting his hands on her shoulders. Alex, smiling slightly, clapped the Doctor on the shoulder and went to join them. He sat on the second swing and swayed back and forth slightly.

"Now," the Doctor said when he'd caught up. He nudged Alex off the swing and sat on it himself. "We all know there's an elephant in the room."

"I have to be this size; I'm having a baby," Amy pouted.

Alex snorted, prompting a look of disdain from Amy. "Sorry," he muttered.

The Doctor saved him. "No, no. The hormones seem real, but no. Is no-one going to mention Rory's pony-tail?"

Alex snorted again, though Amy chuckled too this time.

"You hold him down, I'll cut it off?" the Doctor offered her, using two fingers to form the shape of a pair of scissors.

"This from the man in the bowtie?"

"Bow ties are cool," the Doctor retorted.

He got up from the swing – which Alex hurriedly jumped back on to – and stepped forward. There, going up the wooden stairs to the stone ruins, was Mrs Poggit. She looked directly at them before turning and taking in all the children playing.

"Don't know about you but I wouldn't hire Mrs Poggit as a babysitter," the Doctor muttered, spitting the woman's name. "What's she doing..? What does she want..?"

The tweeting birds sounded again.

"Here comes the hypnosis," Alex sighed.

He was asleep before the Doctor could correct him.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex grunted as he peeled his arm off of the freezing glass floor. "What the hell is going on? Why's it so cold?" he asked, rubbing it.

"I don't know," the Doctor said bluntly.

"It's really cold," Amy shivered, rubbing her arms. "You got any warm clothing?"

"What does it matter if we're _cold_?" asked the Doctor impatiently. "We have to know what she's up to!" Amy looked genuinely hurt at his outburst. The Doctor rubbed his face and spoke again, calmer. "Sorry. Sorry. There should be some stuff down there," he pointed down one of the staircases, "have a look."

Amy and Rory stalked off down the staircase. As they went, the Doctor ventured down some stairs and below the console.

"Who says she's up to anything?" Alex asked him.

The Doctor reached what seemed to be a rickety old metal cupboard. He yanked it open, breaking the handle in the process. "She just is. You saw them all looking at us out of the window." He pulled out an egg whisk, a bottle opener and a few wires from the cupboard. "Like I said. One of my tawdry quirks."

"Okay look," Alex said as the Doctor rejoined him on the upper level. "It's my birthday soon yeah? I'll be 26. But in the other world, five years later, I'll be 31. Work out if I look 26 or 31? Problem solved. World chosen."

"Your appearance changes," the Doctor reminded Alex, his voice muffled as he held wires in his teeth. He soniced the egg whisk to the bottle opener. "Otherwise Amy would look all elephant-y now too."

"Not if that world's the dream."

He sighed. "Look. We don't really know the mechanics of the slip we're caught in. We're not going to be able to work out which is the real one like that." He spat the wires out of his mouth and affixed them to the device in his arms with his Screwdriver. He then attached the other end of the wires to the TARDIS console. As he finished, Amy and Rory reappeared, both dressed in large, bulky ponchos. "Ah! Rory, wind," he ordered, handing him the device. He took one last wire and attached it to the monitor.

"I was promised amazing worlds," Rory complained. "Instead I get duff central heating and a... weird... kitchen-y wind-up device..."

"It's a generator. Get winding."

Confused, he began to wind the egg whisk slowly. Nothing happened. Rory wound it faster and the monitor began to fire up. "Why is the Dream Lord picking on you? Why us?"

The large monitor on the wall lit up. It showed a seemingly empty image of deep space. No worlds, just a few stars and a nebula in the far distance, millions upon millions of miles away.

"Where are we?" asked Amy.

"We're in trouble..."

"It's just space-" Alex began.

"What... is that?" Rory asked.

Alex looked back at the screen. As the monitor had rotated, it now showed a new object floating in the sky. A planet? It was ghostly white, with a number of ridges on it. It even seemed to have an atmosphere, a white glow emanating from its outer shell.

"A star," the Doctor muttered ominously. "A cold star." The Doctor raced towards the doors of the TARDIS and threw the open. A blindingly bright, white light shone into the console room, bathing them all in the star's glow. "That's why we're freezing! It's not a heating malfunction," the Doctor called, shielding his eyes from the blinding radiance. "We're drifting toward a cold sun! There's our deadly danger for this version of reality." He forced the doors closed once more.

"A _cold_ sun?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"So this must be the dream; there's no such thing as a cold star, starts burn," Amy said rather quickly, shivering again.

"So's this one, it's just burning cold!"

"Is that possible?"

"Oh, everything's possible with _you_, isn't it," Alex sneered at the Doctor, who rolled his eyes but didn't say a word.

"So, is this the dream or not then?" Rory asked, confused.

"I don't know! But there it is, and I'd say we've got about 14 minutes until we crash into it," the Doctor replied patronisingly, checking his watch. "But that's not a problem."

"Because you know how to get us out of this?"

The Doctor pulled out a stethoscope from under the console and put it on. "Because we'll have frozen to death by then," he corrected.

"Then what're we gonna do?"

Alex could physically feel the temperature dropping in the room. "Chuck us a poncho," he asked Amy, who picked one up from a chair and did indeed throw it at him. Alex popped it over his head and pushed his arms through. The Doctor appeared to be listening to the interior workings of the console, putting the end of the stethoscope against various parts of it.

"Oh, this is so _you_ isn't it?" Rory sneered to the Doctor in a manner not unlike Alex had done.

"What?" he replied in confusion, removing the stethoscope.

"A weird new star, 14 minutes left to live and only one man to save the day? Huh? I just wanted a nice village and a family!"

"Oh dear Doctor!" said a familiar voice, accompanied by a materialisation sound. All four of them jumped and turned to face the Dream Lord in surprise. "Dissent in the ranks! There was an old Doctor from Gallifrey, who ended up throwing his life away! He let down his friends and-" The Dream Lord was interrupted as the birdsong began again. "Oh, no! We're run out of time!" he said in mock fear. "Don't spend too long there... Or you'll, um. Catch your death here!"

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex picked himself up from the floor and rubbed his head. Evidently, he'd tumbled backwards off of the swing when he'd fallen asleep and bashed his head in the soil below. His legs had stayed cradled on the seat. He grumbled some unintelligible noises and hurried after the Doctor who had wordlessly got up and sprinted towards the ruins of the castle.

"Where have the children gone?" he asked when he reached the top of the wooden stairs up to the field.

"Dunno, playtime's probably over,"

The Doctor ran forward and scanned various piles of a strange substance scattered all over the field. Alex frowned and followed him, running his hand through the dust and pouring it from hand to hand. He picked up a plastic bottle left discarded next to the dust. It still had water in it. He unscrewed the cap and poured a drop of it onto his tongue. Still cool. Odd.

"What are those piles of dust?" Amy asked, leaving Rory standing by the steps looking slightly insulted.

The Doctor ran some of the dust through his fingers and straightened up. "Playtime's definitely over..." he said ominously.

Alex looked over at the Doctor, confused for a second or two. Then realisation dawned on him. Eyes widened, he jumped away from the pile of dust and wiped his hand on his jean leg.

"What happened to them?"

"I think they did," the Doctor told them. He walked forward and looked over the stone wall back towards the old peoples' home. A legion of elderly people were walking, hobbling, limping and shuffling along the road, some with walking sticks and others with zimmer frames.

"But they're just old people,"

"No. They're _very_ old people." He ran down the wooden steps two at a time as the collection of old people turned and started to advance towards them across the grass. "Sorry, Rory, I don't think you're what's been keeping them alive."

"Hello! Peasants!" called the Dream Lord, materialising out of nowhere, as ever. "What's this? Attack of the old people!" He ambled forward to meet the Doctor as he strode towards them determinedly. "Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it?"

"Oh, not you again," Alex muttered as he, Amy and Rory caught up.

The Dream Lord glared at him, before turning to Amy. "What do you think Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS! You first!"

"Leave her alone," the Doctor whispered threateningly.

"Do that again," the Dream Lord commanded. "I _love_ it when he does that. Tall, dark hero? 'Leave her alone!'" he impersonated with a flourish of the arm.

"Just leave her,"

"Yes, you're not quite so impressive," he turned his head to Rory, smiling maliciously. "But I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?" he asked, advancing towards her.

"Shut up. Just shut up, and leave me alone,"

"Listen. You're in there. Loves a redhead, our naughty Doctor... Has he told you about Elizabeth the First? Well... she thought she was the first!"

"Leave her." Alex had stepped between Amy and the Dream Lord, pushed him back slightly and plastered what he hoped was a brave and threatening look on his face.

"Oh Alex. Alex-y, Alex-y. I should probably thank you, shouldn't I?"

"_Thank_ me?" Alex frowned in disbelief. That wasn't the response he'd been expecting.

"Yes..." he tailed off. "Maybe this will help pay the bill." With that, he removed the beige hat from the top of his head and placed it on Alex's.

"Drop it," the Doctor ordered. "Drop all of it. I know who you are."

"Of course you don't."

"Of course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do."

A silence fell across the five of them. Eventually, the Dream Lord chuckled his sadistic chuckle. "Never mind me," he murmured, nodding towards the assembled old people. "Maybe you _should_ worry about them..."

Following his line of vision, it became apparent that the platoon of the elderly had begun to advance once more, slowly but steadily. A sound alerted them to the Dream Lord's disappearance. Emotionless, they continued, Mrs Poggit and an old man at the front.

"Hi," Rory tried.

"Hello-o!" Amy attempted, surprisingly upbeat.

"Hey," Alex joined in, waving half-heartedly.

"Hello! We were wondering where you went!" the Doctor announced cheerily, addressing Mrs Poggit. "To get reinforcements, by the look of it. Are you alright? You look a bit tense!"

Their silence was incredibly unnerving. They stopped, though one man continued advancing, eyes locked on Rory. "Hello, Mr Naimby."

"Rory," the Doctor warned.

"My Naimby ran the sweet shop," Rory explained. "He used to slip me the odd free toffee," he chuckled. Mr Naimby reached forward and seized Rory by the collar, lifting him clean off his feet and holding him aloft. "Did I not say thank you?" Rory asked in shock. Without warning, Mr Naimby launched Rory at least ten feet backwards, until he came crashing down on the muddy floor on his back. Amy hurried over to help him to his feet. "How did he do that?" he grunted.

"I suspect he's not himself. Don't get comfortable here, you may have to run. Fast."

"Can't we just talk to them?" Amy asked.

"She's got a point, they're still old peo-" Alex stopped fast, and gasped in horror in disgust. The old people have collectively opened their mouths to reveal eyes. Green eyes on stalks protruding from their mouths. Every single one. The Doctor wielded the Sonic and scanned them.

"There is an eye in her mouth," Amy pointed out, stating the obvious. Rory stumbled back, looking a bit sick.

"There's a whole creature inside them," the Doctor concluded. "Inside all of them. They've been there for years, living and waiting."

"That is disgusting!" Rory exclaimed, having found his voice. "They're not gonna be peeping out of anywhere else, are they?"

Mrs Poggit – or whatever Mrs Poggit was – leaned forward and exhaled a dense, green gas at them. They all recoiled and backed away, avoiding it. Amy shrieked.

"Okay, ignore them! Talk to me! You are Eknodines!" the Doctor proclaimed proudly.

"Come on," Rory whispered, pulling Alex by the arm. He agreed and he, Rory and Amy walked away from the group, continuously looking back.

"Morning," said a postman cheerily as he passed, pushing a bike.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked as they turned a corner onto the main road.

Amy looked back again. The Doctor was still holding them back. "Away from that lot,"

Alex stopped. "You go ahead. I'll wait. We can't just leave him alone," he reasoned when they both gave him questioning looks.

"See you soon," Amy sighed, hugging him. Rory smiled warmly and hurriedly ushered Amy away.

Alex waited until they were far enough in the distance, and then glanced back around the corner at the Doctor. His eyes widened as the postman who had just walked past them was disintegrated into another pile of dust by Mrs Poggit.

"Granddad, stop it!" said a young, female voice. Alex turned at the sound of it and saw a small, brown-haired girl backing away from an old man, evidently her grandfather. "Granddad, what are you doing? I'm scared! Stop it!" The girl screamed in terror as the same green eye emerged from the man's mouth.

Alex sprinted over as fast as he could and yanked the little girl out of harm's way by the arm as the man exhaled more green gas from his mouth in his trance state. "And that's why you should always brush your teeth," Alex told her as he took the girl. He swiped the Dream Lord's hat off of his head and covered the man's face with it as he puffed out another load of green gas. The hat disintegrated. Alex grabbed the little girl by the hand and led her away from the disorientated old man.

"Who are you? What's wrong with Granddad?" she asked, close to tears.

"I'm Alex, what's your name?" They reached the village green and ran across it. The grandfather was in hot pursuit.

"Erica,"

"Erica. Lovely name. Erica, do you know anyone else in the village? Preferably someone below the age of... seventy?"

"Well there's Mummy. She's visiting a friend."

"And where does Mummy's friend live?"

"This way." Taking the lead, Erica took a road on the left and ran along it. They ran in silence for a minute or two before Erica spoke up. "What's wrong with Granddad?" she asked again.

"No idea. He's not feeling himself. You'll be fine though, promise..." Alex tailed off and looked to the sky as the sound of birdsong filled the air. "Can you hear that?" he asked, slurred as he stumbled.

"Hear what?" Erica asked, frowning.

Alex shook himself, and slapped himself again. "Nothing," he replied, blinking fast and rubbing his eyes. "Is it far?"

"It's just here," they stopped in front of an old cottage. Erica ran up the garden path and knocked on the door rapidly.

Alex stumbled up the path after her, the birdsong intensifying. His eyes drooped. The door opened.

"Erica!" said a surprised voice.

"Hello there!" Alex responded merrily, collapsing through the door frame. He was asleep before he hit the floor.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

"Ah! It's colder!" Amy's voice filled the silence as Alex's eyes popped open, back on the TARDIS. It was indeed freezing; goose bumps had invaded Alex's arms, and he was shivering to his core. He sat up, teeth chattering.

"The four of us have to agree, now, which is the dream," the Doctor said, the buttons of his jacket done up, with the collar upturned.

"It's this, here," Rory responded immediately.

"He could be right. The science is all wrong here... burning ice?" Amy remarked.

"No, no, no! Ice can burn, sofas can read! It's a big universe. We have to agree which battle to lose, all of us, now!"

"The other one," Alex spoke up.

"Agreed," the Doctor nodded to him.

"No, this one!" Rory argued.

"Yes, but are we disagreeing or competing?"

"Competing?" Amy asked, now wrapped up in a blanket. "Over what?" The Doctor, Rory and Alex all turned to look at her in reply. She groaned, rolled her eyes and got to her feet.

"Nine minutes 'til impact," the Doctor announced, checking his watch and also getting up.

"What temperature is it?"

"Outside?" The Doctor shivered. "How many noughts you got? Inside? I don't know, but I can't feel my feet and... other parts."

"I think all my parts are basically fine," Rory shot back.

"Oh grow up," Alex sighed, taking a seat on his favourite chair. He quickly thought better of it; leather and freezing temperatures don't mix he thought, making a mental note.

"Can't we call for help?" Rory asked, grabbing the telephone from the TARDIS console.

"Yeah. 'Cos the universe is really quite small and there's bound to be someone nearby," the Doctor said, replacing the phone back onto its bracket. Alex rejoined them by the console.

Amy picked up a handful of ponchos and threw one each to the Doctor and Rory. "Put these on." Alex smiled at her. She chortled and passed him a second.

"Oh! A poncho!" Rory exclaimed as Amy forced it over his head. "The biggest crime against fashion since lederhosen."

The Doctor, on the other hand, put it on wholeheartedly and span on the spot, grinning.

"There we go!" Amy said as she finished putting her own on. She looked at the three men and tilted her head to the side. "Oh, my boys. My poncho boys." She smiled and joined them. "If we're going to die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band."

"We're not gonna die," Rory said, sounding wholly unsure.

"No. We're not," the Doctor agreed, checking his watch. "But our time's running out. If we fall asleep here, we're in trouble... If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world, two in each." He began to pace the frozen floor. "But the Dream Lord is switching us between the worlds... why? Why? What's the logic?"

"Good idea, Veggie," the Dream Lord agreed, joining in the pacing. "Let's divide your four up so I can have a little chat with our lovely companion," he smiled, gesturing towards Amy. The Dream Lord had also donned a poncho, electric blue. "Maybe I'll keep her! And you can have Pointy Nose and Baby Beard to yourself for all eternity." Alex frowned and fingered the slight stubble forming on the end of his chin and sideburns. "Should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality..."

"'Baby Beard'?" Alex muttered. He looked around automatically as the unnatural birdsong announced impending sleep.

"Can you hear that?" Rory asked Amy, stumbling.

"What? No?"

"Amy? Don't be scared. We'll be back," the Doctor assured her, lowering himself to the floor.

Alex leaned against the TARDIS console, attempting fruitlessly to force himself to stay awake. Rory and the Doctor slumped, gone. Amy begged him wordlessly. Alex shrugged in apology. "See you soon," he managed.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex's first thought when he woke was that this was the most comfortable waking in a while. His second was a question. Why was he in a bed with _My Little Pony_ bedclothes? He remembered accompanying Erica back to her mother's friend's house and presumed they had carried him to a young child's bedroom when he'd collapsed on the doorstep. He groaned and climbed out of the bed. He opened the door of the bedroom. "Hello?" he called, rubbing his head. No reply.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, he found the stairs. "Hello?" he called out again. "Erica? I'm awake!" He arrived at the bottom of the stairs. "Sorry about all that, I can explain! Sort of," he finished, mumbling to himself. Still, there was silence. He poked his head into the kitchen nearby. Two cups of something were sitting on the kitchen table. Both were still steaming.

Alex frowned and pushed on, heading down the passageway to the living room. When he arrived, he shivered. He realised the patio door into the back garden was open, the curtain fluttering in the breeze. Maybe they were outside, he theorised, as he made his way towards the door. He tripped in something on the floor as he arrived there. Cursing silently, he glanced down to see what he'd tripped on and fell silent. He bent down to the ground and picked up a handful of the ash, letting it pour through his fingers and back onto the otherwise pristine carpet. He tore his eyes away and now noticed another pile, two or three metres away. A third was halfway across the room.

"I led them here," Alex whispered. Glowering, Alex stood up straight. He stepped out of the back door and made his way across the garden to the garden gate, which was hanging off of its hinges. Arriving in a narrow alleyway, he took a stab in the dark and turned left. It was time to find the Doctor, and put a stop to this.


	28. Amy's Choice: Three

_Bit worried the bit on the wall will be hard to follow. Ah well. After this, we've got another Meanwhile in the TARDIS, with a new original story coming after that. It's another flashback, so the Doctor, Amy and Rory still go and meet the Silurians._

Amy's Choice – Part Three

"Oi! Grandpa!" Alex shouted angrily. He launched a stone at the old man walking away from the house and across the village green. It was definitely Erica's grandfather. The man registered the impact and slowly turned to face Alex. "That was your _grand_daughter!" he cried furiously. "Whatever's inside you, surely you understand _that_!"

The green eye reappeared in the man's mouth. "The child was no relation of mine," said a voice that did not fit the body at all. "This body belongs to me now. I shall use it in any way I please,"

"What, to kill little children?"

"To kill _all_ children! And their parents, and friends, and uncles, and cousins. The Eknodine planet was lost and our race destroyed. Now we will do the same to others." As the man spoke, numerous other elderly people had appeared, surrounding Alex. He span on the spot, having noticed this. "You will be the next victim," the man finished.

"Yeah?" Alex said, sounding more confident than he felt. He looked around again as the circle became smaller and smaller, the people enclosing him more and more. "Well whatever you Eknodines are, you've still got old bodies. Ninety-year-old bodies some of you... And I should warn you. I did GCSE PE. Didn't do it very well, but still, came out with a pass. And the best part of that?" Alex glanced around at those surrounding him and picked the oldest, frailest looking person he could see. "I know how to play Rugby."

With that, hating himself, Alex charged at the man he'd chosen with all his might. He wrapped his arms around the man's waist and knocked him to the floor, his walking stick flying high into the air. Alex jumped up and caught it, before running away as fast as possible. To his left were the castle ruins.

"That was a bit rude," said an amused voice. Looking up the wooden stairs, Alex saw the Dream Lord leaning on the stone wall, his chin resting on his hand.

"Haven't you got somewhere better to be?" Alex snapped, storming up the steps and passing him, into the field.

"Well, it's either here or the TARDIS, and the TARDIS is ever so cold, y'know."

"I don't care. Bit busy, thanks."

"Hm. Maybe you need a break. I've nearly finished my chat with Amy. Why don't you come back to the TARDIS with me, and we'll have a nice little heart-to-heart?" As the Dream Lord finished his sentence, the birdsong started up.

"No! No!" Alex cried. "I'm busy!" A grunting alerted him to the fact that several pensioners were limping up the wooden stairs, their eyes locked on him. Alex's eyes widened and he turned and ran clumsily, trying to find somewhere to hide before he collapsed.

"I'll be waiting!" came the Dream Lord's call from somewhere behind him.

The field was empty. Nowhere to hide and the Eknodines had blocked off the only exit. He considered sprinting to the furthest reaches of the field and hoping he woke up before the Eknodines reached him, but that was exceedingly risky. Seizing the bull by the horns, Alex slid the walking stick through one of the belt loops of his jeans, grabbed a protruding stone on the wall and hauled himself up. He just hoped the top of the wall was thick enough for him to safely fall unconscious.

The tweeting strengthened and Alex's eyes drooped once again, and yet he kept going. If he fell asleep now, he was done for. He clambered onto the top of the wall. It was around two feet wide. There was what Alex assumed were battlements spread along the wall. They at least provided something to lean on. He glanced across the field. He was right; the Eknodines did still have elderly bodies. They were taking their time to get across the field, and he highly doubted they'd be able to scale the wall. It was probably at least 20 feet down. Maybe thirty on the other side. It would have to do...

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

"Oh... my God," Alex chattered. The temperature aboard the TARDIS had taken a turn for the worse while Alex had been back in Leadworth. There was thick ice covering every surface – including hair, clothes and, worst of all, skin. Every movement Alex made hurt.

"Alex!" cried out a weak but familiar Scottish voice.

Alex turned to the left quickly to see Amy lying in the ice, eyes drooping. He crawled over to her. "Amy! Are you okay?"

"We... went to my house," she managed between shivers. "Meet us there. Are you w-with the D-Doctor?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't know where he is,"

Amy's head slumped. Fast asleep. Alex checked her pulse just to be sure; slow, but still there.

"Told you it was a bit nippy," the Dream Lord appeared, bending down next to Amy. Alex jumped and stood up, backing away slightly. "Oh, come on Alex. Nothing to be scared of here y'know. I helped you, didn't I?" Alex gave him a confused and detestable look. "The hat?"

"Oh," Alex said simply, sitting down on a stair. "Yeah. Thanks."

The Dream Lord joined him. "So. You think it's this world, do you?"

"You tell me."

"I wish I could Alex. I honestly do. And not only that! There are so many things I wish I could tell you,"

Alex glanced around at him, interest piqued. "Like what?"

"Well I can't tell you!" the Dream Lord grinned. "It's really quite frustrating."

"Well you don't seem to go by the rules much..."

The Dream Lord disappeared, and reappeared by the console. "Do you know, Alex, why the Doctor trusts _you_, and comes back for _you_, and tries harder to protect _you_ than anyone else?"

"Look, if you don't have anything straight-forward to say, I'd appreciate going back to Leadworth." Alex got up and strolled towards where his friends lay on the ground. He re-arranged the Doctor's poncho so that it covered his hands, giving him some protection. He scraped some ice off of Rory's nose and brushed Amy's frozen hair from her face. "I've got some pensioners to run from."

"Very well. I tried. Enjoy the nap, because, er," he looked at his watch as the sound of tweeting birds reappeared. "This might be your last one."

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex awoke with a jump. Bad idea when you fell asleep on top of a thin, high, rock wall. He yelped but kept his balance. Shaking, he got to his feet. And nearly fell off again. Somehow, a number of the Eknodines had managed to scale the wall. The one in front had exhaled its deadly gas at Alex, just missing him. Without thinking, Alex yanked the walking stick back out of the belt loop on his trousers and held it aloft.

"I warm you," he smiled, slowly backing away, climbing over the next battlement in reverse. "If I can use a sword, I can use a walking stick."

The man, who Alex recognised as Rory's friend Mr Naimby, shot another load of green gas at Alex, who hurriedly ducked to avoid it. He swung around with the walking stick. It struck Naimby on the side of the head, knocking him off balance. He tumbled off the wall and fell to the ground far below. Alex winced, having to remind himself that the real Mr Naimby had probably been killed by the Eknodine inside him long ago.

Nevertheless, Alex felt unable to strike out at another of his pursuers. Dropping the walking stick, he turned and scrambled over another of the battlements, and another one. The pensioners were in hot pursuit, and those who had not been athletic enough to scale the wall were following Alex along the wall, waiting for him to tumble. Alex sped up, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Eknodines, getting ever closer. He was standing on top of one of the battlements when the sound of an engine caused him to look to his left. Careering across the green below, driving directly toward the wall and Alex was a VW camper van. It skidded to a halt below where Alex was standing and, to his immense surprise, the Doctor stuck his head out of the window and looked up at him.

"What're you doing up there?" he called up.

"Running," Alex replied simply, gesturing back to those following him.

"Get in," the Doctor shouted back in a similarly simple manner. He withdrew his head and closed the window, offering no explanation as to _how_ Alex was supposed to reach the van. Taking a deep breath, Alex climbed off the battlement and hung off of it by his fingertips. He took one last look down to ensure he was positioned directly over the van. He let go.

The drop seemed to last forever, and Alex thought for a hideous split-second he'd miscalculated. He almost had. He landed on the very back of the camper and lost his footing. He toppled off of it and landed on the hard, cold ground, right on his back. Looking up at the sky, he saw that the Eknodines had reached where he'd been moments before, and were now looking at him with angry looks in their eyes.

The passenger door to the camper swung open. "Get in!" the Doctor shouted again. Alex pulled himself up and hobbled towards the door, his left hand nursing his bruised lower back. The fall didn't seem to have done him any real damage. He took a deep breath, straightened up – his back cracking in the process - and hopped into the front seat.

"Alright?" the Doctor asked as he sped off and back towards the road. It was only now that Alex realised they weren't alone. In the back of the camper were around fifteen terrified men, women and children.

"Yeah, not bad. Any reason you're driving a campervan?"

"Borrowed it from Pete. Say 'ello Pete,"

The Doctor gestured to a bespectacled man standing in the back of the van, who held out a hand cheerily. "Hi there!"

"Hi," Alex replied, bemusedly shaking Pete's hand. "And the rest of them?" he asked the Doctor.

"Saved them from the old people." The Doctor pulled up outside the large Leadworth church and opened his door. "Everybody out! Out!" he cried, sliding the side-door to the camper open and ushering the passengers out. "Into the church, that's right. Don't answer the door!"

"What about my van?" Pete protested as he stumbled towards the church.

The Doctor didn't reply. He jumped back into the van and sped down the country lane, leaving Pete, standing dejectedly, far behind. "Go to Amy and Rory's," Alex commanded.

"What, why?"

"Amy told me that's where they are."

The Doctor turned to look at him in surprise. "When?"

"The Dream Lord took me onto the TARDIS too. She told me as she was falling asleep."

The Doctor took a corner at speed, shifting the camper up a gear. "What did he say?"

"Never mind that," said the Dream Lord, materialising into the back seat of the van, dressed in Formula One gear with a racing helmet on his lap. "It's make-your-mind-up time. In both worlds!"

"Bye," the Doctor replied bluntly. "I need to find my friends."

"Friends?" the Dream Lord questioned. "Is that the right word for the people you acquire? Friends are people you stay in touch with. Your friends never see you again once they've grown up."

Alex turned in his seat to face the Dream Lord, irritably. "Oh shut up. I've been with him nearly four years. I _have_ grown up with him,

The Dream Lord grinned. "And we both know why that is, don't we Doctor?" Alex glanced from the Dream Lord to the Doctor, who had his eyes set on the road determinedly. "Do you, Alex? Do you know why you've been with him for so long? And you're not exactly elderly, are you? Face it. This old man prefers the company of the young, does he not?" With that, the Dream Lord disappeared once more.

"What did he mean?" Alex asked after a moment or two of silence. "Why have I grown up with you?"

"Right," the Doctor pulled up outside the cottage. The elderly were laying siege to the house with various gardening instruments. "Let's do this," he opened his door and rolled out of it, crouching behind the safety of the van. Alex sidled along the seat and followed him.

"Well let's think about this," Alex reasoned, peering around the front of the van. "We know they've still got elderly bodies. So they're still slow."

The Doctor took what we saw in, breathing deeply. "Yes, you're right. Look, there's a clear path to the porch. We'll run there, I'll give you a leg-up, onto the top and you climb in through that open window."

Alex nodded his grudging agreement. He'd much rather give the Doctor the leg-up.

"Right, on three," the Doctor whispered. "One... two... three!" The Doctor sprang from behind the van and dashed through the gap, heading directly for the porch. Alex followed.

"We will do the same to others!" cried out a familiar voice. Alex slowed slightly and turned to his right. Mr Naimby was limping towards him, pitchfork aloft. He breathed his green gas at Alex, who dived out of the way.

"Alex, come on!" the Doctor cried, already having reached the porch. Alex scrambled to his feet and staggered over to him. "Why're you walking like that, what's happened?"

"I just took a tumble. It's fine,"

"Let me look,"

"Doctor, they're coming!" Alex cried, pointing to the advancing Eknodines.

"Let me look!"

Alex sighed and obliged. He lifted up his trouser leg and showed the Doctor his ankle where he was feeling the pain. It wasn't there. As he lifted the leg of his trouser, his ankle disintegrated away. Alex's eyes widened. He tore them away from his ankle and looked up at the Doctor, who looked distraught. "No..." Alex whispered, shaking his head. He cried out and stumbled backwards, pain shooting through his body. He lifted his shirt to reveal brown patches on his stomach, also beginning to crumble away into dust.

"Which one was it?" the Doctor asked quietly, angrily.

Alex took and deep breath. He put his hands together and bent down, forming a step for the Doctor. "Come on," he managed.

The Doctor protested, forlornly. "No," he shook his head.

"Come on!" Alex shouted. The look in his eyes was such that the Doctor obliged. He placed his shoe onto Alex's hands as softly as he could, not wishing to speed up the process.

He jumped as Alex lifted, but the effort was too much. Alex's half-formed legs gave way and he crumpled. It was an odd feeling. He suddenly felt so much lighter on his feet. Possibly because he no longer had feet. Did he? He wasn't sure now. He tried to feel for them and found that he didn't have any hands anymore. He tried to lift his head to have a look, only to discover that his neck had abandoned him too. His last view was of the Doctor, dangling off of the porch, having caught the gutter as his support left him. He closed his eyes. Or his eyes disintegrated. One or the other.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex slowly opened his eyes. He still had eyes! He was also deathly cold. Struggling, he managed to sit up and found himself on the TARDIS. Every single surface was covered in deep ice. It was definitely the first dream world. "Oh. Okay..." he muttered. "So I survived then! Brilliant! Love it when I do that." He glanced down and gave his body the once-over. "Legs, yes! Arms, hands, chest, feet," he mumbled as he ran his hands over each body part. Behind him, the Doctor, Amy and Rory also sat up.

"So," the Dream Lord said, stepping between them. "You chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left!" As the Dream Lord spoke, the cold star on the monitor grew smaller as the TARDIS flew away from it. He walked to the console and pressed a few buttons. "Fair's fair. Let's warm you up!" The idiosyncratic lights and sounds of the TARDIS returned, the temperature rising considerably almost straight away. "I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions! It all came out of your imaginations so... I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell." For the final time, the Dream Lord, his back to them, dematerialised on the spot.

"Alex," the Doctor grunted, having staggered to his feet. With great effort, he pulled a lever on the console. "Get the Exhondic Buffer."

Alex did as he was told. "Doctor..." he began, struggling on his choice of words. "I died."

"Yeah,"

"Right..."

"Cancel the Igniting Prohibitor," he ordered.

"What're we doing now?" Amy asked, as she and Rory broke apart from their hug and intimate conversation.

The Doctor grunted, struggling to turn something on the console that was evidently still frozen. "Me? I'm gonna blow up the TARDIS."

"_What_?" Alex and Rory asked in unison. Alex hurriedly pressed the Igniting Prohibitor again, re-firing it.

The Doctor rushed around the re-pressed it. "Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was. Okay, there was misinformation, red herrings, malice. And I could've done without the limerick! But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality." He laughed as a red light flooded the console room and the entire ship began to shake.

"Doctor, the Dream Lord conceded, this isn't the dream!" Rory cried.

"Yes it is! Star burning cold, do me a favour! The Dream Lord has no power over the real world! He was offering us a choice between two dreams!"

"How do you know that?" Amy demanded.

The Doctor looked at each of his friends in turn, smiling. "Because I know who he is." He pulled one final lever. Everything dissolved into nothingness.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex opened his eyes. He was slumped against one of the TARDIS corridors, a minute or so from the main control room. Well, he still had all of his body-parts, and he was no longer freezing to his core. It seemed the Doctor was right. Alex staggered to his feet and made his way to the console room. As he climbed the stairs up to it, Amy and Rory were descending some. They all walked somewhat uncertainly.

"Any questions?" asked the Doctor. He was leaning casually on the console, his hand held out in front of him.

"What's that?" Amy asked, plodding down the stairs, pointing to the Doctor's hand. Alex now noticed there was something in it. What appeared to be a few small, silver-y balls.

The Doctor held his hand out so they could see the balls easier. "A speck of psychic pollen from the Candle Meadows of Kras don Slava. Must've been hanging around for ages. Fell into the Time Rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of his," he theorised. Closing his hand, the Doctor walked over to the TARDIS doors and opened them. Holding out his hand again, he blew the psychic pollen out of the door and into the depths of space. He then closed the doors again and clapped his hands together.

"So, that was the Dream Lord then?" asked Rory, leaning on the rail of the console level. "Those little specks?"

"What? No! No, no. Sorry. Wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was me! Psychic pollen, it's a mind parasite, feeds on everything dark in you. Gives it a voice, turns it against you. I'm 907. It had a lot to go on."

"Why didn't it feed on us too?"

"The darkness in you three? It would've starved to death in an instant. I choose my friends with great care!"

Alex suddenly remembered what the Dream Lord had said – _"Do you know why you've been with him for so long?" _He frowned.

The Doctor continued, interrupting Alex's internal thoughts. "Otherwise, I'm stuck with my own company. And y'know how that works out."

"But those things he said about you. You don't think any of that's true?"

The Doctor didn't reply. "Amy, right now a question is about to occur to Rory. And, since the answer is about to change his life, I think you should give him your full attention," he finished, pushing her towards Rory by the shoulders.

"Yeah..." Rory began. "Actually, yeah!"

"There it is,"

"'Cos, what I don't get is, you blew up the TARDIS, that stopped that dream, but what stopped the Leadworth dream?"

Alex realised he'd also been wondering that question. "Good point! How did you three get out of that one? I mean, I know I died, but..."

"We crashed the camper van," Amy informed them simply.

Rory nodded slowly. "I don't remember that bit."

"No. You weren't there. You already..." she struggled to choose her words. "You died too! Mrs Poggit got ya," she muttered.

"Ok-ay... but how did you know it was the dream? Before you crashed the van? How did you know you wouldn't just die?"

The Doctor clicked his fingers at Alex and pointed at the control on the console. Alex, still listening to Amy with intent interest, wordlessly did as he was told.

"I didn't" Amy admitted. She and Rory looked into each other's eyes, chuckling.

Alex frowned, and turned to the Doctor, who was leaning on the console, smiling at him sadly. He wordlessly moved towards Alex and landed a great hug on him, patting him on the back. Alex laughed and responded, before noticing Amy and Rory were now locked in a passionate kiss.

"Doctor," he began. "I think, earlier, I heard the, um," he paused, wildly improvising, "y'know, the Temporal... contra-engines... whining. I think we should go and check them out..."

"What?" the Doctor asked in confusion. Alex rolled his eyes and surreptitiously nodded towards Amy and Rory who were still tightly embracing. "Ah! Right, yes. Good idea. Let's go and... take a look," he grinned.

Amy's voice floated along the corridor that Alex and the Doctor had bundled into. "Oi!" They sheepishly poked their heads back around the corner. "Get back here,"

The Doctor grinned and re-entered the control room. "Right," he clapped his hands together. "Where to now?"


	29. Meanwhile: Five

_So, we're about half way through the series... ish. I felt it was time to thank a few of you; My top four reviewers! Of course, I'm thankful for each and every review I receive, but these four guys are probably my biggest... fans? Not the right word, but you get the idea :D_

_Allonsy-Doctor: Hello, series-rewriting rival! Thanks for all your great reviews, I think you've pretty much reviewed every single chapter! Much love, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Effie :D_

_RosalieHale1997: Blimey, you don't half love this, do you? :D Thank you for all your reviews and compliments, they're very touching :') _

_Prone To Obsession: Y'know, you're right. You are prone to obsession! ;) And I'm happy that I've written the first self-insert that you've enjoyed! Cheers for your brilliant reviews! _

_Allie Chick: Well, Alex thinks you're awesome too! Glad you like his character, and are enjoying my take on the episodes! Thanks you for reviewing :)_

Meanwhile in the TARDIS 5

"Alex!" the Doctor called, throwing a lever almost artistically. "It's your birthday tomorrow, your choice. Where to?"

Before Alex could answer, Rory interrupted. "How do you know it's your birthday? You can't exactly keep track of the date in this thing."

Wordlessly, Alex took his watch off of his wrist and passed it to Rory. "See this?" he pointed to where the three would be on the face. "That's the date. I haven't changed it since the Doctor picked me up, which was around... November ish, few years back. Just have to keep track of the month and when that number resets. I can work out what the date is and, therefore, when it's my birthday." He grinned at Rory's look of bemusement. "So, this tells me that, in my linear time line, today is the 16th, and as far as I know, this month is May. My birthday's the 17th May. Sorted."

"And... what year is that?" Rory asked after a pause."

"2010."

"Ah, hold on, you picked me up on the 25th June 2010, so how's it on-"

The Doctor interrupted. "Rory, it's complicated, and timey-wimey and impossible to explain in brief, so be a good boy and forget it. Now, Alex, where are we going? Las Vegas in 2119? A space-walk over the Carina Nebula? The planet Kandor, home of the Ik-haals?" he finished with a cheeky grin. "Anywhere you want, any _time_ you want."

"Home," Alex said simply. The Doctor frowned. "I want to go home. Just for a bit. You didn't give me a proper visit last time..."

The Doctor looked slightly annoyed. "But surely you want something more exciting than-"

"You _did_ say anywhere," Amy interrupted him, smiling.

"But we went _somewhere_ last year! Camelot! We went to _Camelot_, but now you want to go _home_?"

Rory perked up. "Wait. Camelot actually existed? Arthur and... and Lancelot and..."

"Not as you might expect it to Rory, no. Most legends have a basis of fact, but in the case of Camelot, it's a _very_ small basis of fact," Alex smiled, before turning to look at the Doctor expectantly.

He grimaced, but eventually obliged. "Fine. Fine. Home. Don't understand why, but fine, your choice. Off we go," he grumbled as he pulled another lever. As he did so, the Time Rotor began to move up and down. "We'll be a few minutes."

Alex thanked him and took a seat on his favourite chair, leaning back on it and thinking. If he was truthful to himself, he didn't really feel in need of a visit home, and Las Vegas in 2119 did sound good. In fact, Alex had always wanted to visit Vegas. But he needed some time alone to relax, and to think. To think about what he was really doing with the Doctor...

He must have looked as deep in thought as he was. Amy sidled up to him and whispered "You okay?" to him.

Alex considered. He saw Rory climb the stairs and leave the control room, heading towards the bathroom. The Doctor was busy pumping with an instrument on the console. He stood up and silently nodded down a nearby staircase, indicating for Amy to follow him down there. She did so. They walked a few metres along the corridor before Alex stopped and turned to her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What did the Dream Lord say to you? When you were alone with him?"

Amy hesitated and shook her head. "Not much," she shrugged.

"Did he ask why you think you're with him? The Doctor?" Alex ploughed on.

Amy shook her head again. "No. Just... stuff about Rory. Did he ask you?"

Alex decided to tell the full truth. He had to tell someone, and who else was there? "He asked me why I thought I'd been with the Doctor for so long. And he's right; it's coming up to four years. I was 23. I'm nearly 27 now, for Christ's sake!"

"So?" Amy smiled. "You and him connect. What's wrong with that?"

"Well, the way the Dream Lord spoke, his intonation, his... face. He implied there was a specific meaning. Not just that we "connect"."

"Alex, I think you're being a bit paranoid," Amy laughed.

Alex didn't. "That's not all. He said to me, he told me that there are lots of things he has to tell me, but he can't. Why can't he?"

"It doesn't matter! He's gone now, he wasn't real," she reasoned, as she began to lead him back to the console room. As they walked, a slight banging informed them that the TARDIS had landed.

"Don't you get it? The Dream Lord was the Doctor, and the Doctor is the Dream Lord. They're the same person," he pointed out as they turned the corner back to the room. The Doctor was reading something on the scanner. "So what's he keeping from me?" Alex finished, whispering.

Amy gave him a cynical look and waltzed back up to the console. Alex rolled his eyes and followed.

"Ah!" the Doctor said, noticing Alex had returned. "You're back! Good. Right. We're here."

"Brilliant," Alex smiled. "Thanks."

"I'm not dropping this though. When you're back, we're having a proper celebration. We can go anywhere, anywhen, anywhatever. That's the great thing about the TARDIS! You can visit Ancient Greece in the morning, have lunch on the fifth Moon of Sinda Callista, spend the afternoon-"

"Doctor," Alex interrupted, grinning. "I've been at this nearly four years. I know."

The Doctor frowned, and began to usher him towards the door. "Yes, fine, off you go. Go and have your boring birthday." Alex grinned and walked towards the door. "Oh!" the Doctor said. He stopped and rushed to the console. He threw a small box in Alex's direction. "Happy birthday," he grinned.

"Yeah, happy birthday," Amy said, rushing over to Alex and pulling him into a hug. "I didn't even know it was your birthday so..." she trailed off.

"Oh, forget it. Not like I was expecting anything," Alex laughed, pulling away from Amy. "Right, where's Rory?"

"Oh, never mind him," the Doctor said, waving away his protest. "He'll be here when you get back. Go on, get out,"

"Alright, alright!" Alex said, slumping his shoulders theatrically and opening the door.

"Hey, this was your choice," the Doctor reminded him. "You can still change your mind."

Alex shot one last smile at Amy, then stepped backwards the closed the door without a word. He threw himself back onto the sofa in his living room and watched as the TARDIS dematerialised in front of him. As soon as it had done, his face dropped. As much as he wanted to deny it, the Dream Lord was right. Alex had met the Doctor's friend Martha twice now. She'd lasted around a year, travelling with the Doctor. Jack Harkness met up with the Doctor occasionally. The Doctor had never mentioned any really long-term companions of his. So why was it Alex had spent more time with him than a lot of them put together? Even Donna, she hadn't even lasted a whole year...


	30. The Ikhaals: One

_Greetings, readers old and new! Here's my second attempt at an original story! Will it be better or worse than the first? Let's find out. And, as you may notice, the beginning is _not_ original :D_

_Also, a big thanks goes to WilliamCorvinus (thanks for the reviews!), who pointed out quite a hefty mistake. In the last part, I said Alex has been with the Doctor for nearly four years (so, around 3 and a half), yet in The Eleventh Hour, I said two years! I'm going to go out there and say... three years at this point – 6 months before S4, series 4, the specials, and half of series 5. Anyone who knows how to correct this, your advice would be much appreciated!_

The Ik-haals – Part One

The Doctor leant forward on the sofa sincerely. "Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me, or Alex, or anywhere we went together." Silvia and Wilfred nodded their understanding, both teary eyed. "For the rest of her life."

"But the whole world's talking about it! We travelled across space!" Sylvia pointed out.

The Doctor shrugged. "It'll just be a story. One of those Donna Noble stories where she missed it all again."

"But she was better with you!" Wilf cried, tears creeping down his elderly cheeks, his voice beginning to break.

"Don't say that!"

"No, she was!"

Alex leaned forward. "I just think you should know. Even though I only knew her for a few months... Donna was incredible. The most... human human I've ever met, and... you should both be _so_ proud because she's..." Alex tailed off, struggling to find the words. The Doctor took over.

"There are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. And there are people living in the light, singing songs of Donna Noble. A thousand million light years away. They will never forget her... while she can never remember." Tears now streamed down both Sylvia and Wilf's cheeks. Alex took a deep breath to compose himself, but he knew his eyes were swimming too. Even the Doctor, ever strong, sounded like he was about to break down. "And for one moment," he continued. "One shining moment. She was the most important woman in the whole wide universe..."

"She still is," Sylvia told him firmly. "She's my daughter."

"Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while."

Before Sylvia could angrily reply, the lounge door opened and in walked Donna, still dressed in the clothes that she had saved the entire universe in, yawning. "I was asleep!" she exclaimed. "On my bed, in my clothes! Like a flippin' kid, what'd you let me do that for?" she asked her mother and grandfather chuckling. She then seemed to notice the Doctor and Alex. "Don't mind me. Donna," she said to them as she texted on her phone.

"John Smith," the Doctor said, taking a deep breath and standing up. He held out a hand to shake Donna's.

Alex followed suit and also held out a hand. "Elliot Mansfield," he introduced himself, smiling sadly.

"John and Elliot were just leaving," Sylvia said sourly, glaring at the Doctor.

"My phone's gone mad, thirty-two texts! Vina's gone barmy! She's sayin' "planets in the sky!" What 'ave I missed now?" she laughed and left the room. "Nice to meet ya," she called over her shoulder.

"As I said," Sylvia continued once Donna was out of earshot. "I think you should go."

Alex patted the Doctor on the shoulder comfortingly, not sure what else he should do. The Doctor glanced at him and smiled warmly. He took one last look at Sylvia, grinned comfortingly at Wilf and left the room. Alex followed him into the hall and headed for the front door.

"Alex," the Doctor stopped him. He strolled into the kitchen, where Donna's voice was easily audible. "Donna," he began, alerting her to their presence as Alex stuck his head around the door into the room. "We were just going,"

"Yeah. See ya," she replied, barely taking the phone away from her ear. "I tell you what though, you're wastin' your time with that one. Because Susie Mayer, she went on that datin' site-"

Alex couldn't bear to listen anymore and strode towards the front door, flinging it open rather violently.

"Alex," the Doctor reprimanded.

"Is this goodbye then?" asked a sad voice. They both turned to meet Wilf standing behind them.

"'Fraid so," the Doctor told him. He glanced outside and realised it was pouring with rain. "Ah. You'll have quite a bit of this. Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it'll pass. Everything does..." he paused, then turned to Wilf. "Bye then Wilfred," he said warmly, holding out a hand which Wilf shook enthusiastically.

"Bye," Alex almost whispered, also holding out a hand. The Doctor nodded and put a hand on Alex's shoulder, steering him out of the house and towards the TARDIS on the opposite side of the road.

"Oh, Doctor. Alex," Wilf called. "You two gonna be okay now?"

"We'll be fine. We're fine," the Doctor assured him.

"We always are,"

"I'll watch out for you two."

"You can't ever tell her!" the Doctor commanded, sounding almost angry.

"No, no," Wilf agreed. "But every night. When it gets dark, and the stars come out. I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky and think of you two."

Alex finally broke. He opened the gates as tears travelled down his cheeks, mixing with the rain pelting down on him.

"Thank you," the Doctor said simply, also close to breaking point. He put his arm around Alex and resumed steering him towards the TARDIS.

Alex stumbled slightly, his vision blurred by tears. He took and deep breath and wiped his eyes. They arrived at the TARDIS doors and Alex pushed them open. The Doctor wordlessly walked towards the console and pulled down on a lever, setting the TARDIS into motion. "What now then?" Alex asked when he had composed himself slightly.

The Doctor took off his sopping suit jacket. "Whatever you want," he stammered.

Alex thought for a moment before realising he only wanted one thing. "I want to go home," he whispered. The Doctor simply nodded and altered the controls slightly, heading for Alex's house. The journey didn't take long, since Alex and Donna came from the same time and didn't live too far from each other in all honesty. The Time Rotor pounded, alerting them to having reached their destination.

"I'll be back for you in a few days," the Doctor muttered.

"Thanks," Alex murmured. He stumbled down the ramp and pulled the door open. "Where're you going to go?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Set the co-ordinates to random, see where it takes me,"

Alex nodded slowly and stepped outside. "See you soon," he called back into the TARDIS. An unintelligible response came from the Doctor's direction. Alex closed the door and found himself in his bedroom. He stood back as the TARDIS dematerialised in front of him. Taking one more deep breath, he flung himself backwards onto his double bed and fell into a deep, well-deserved sleep.

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex woke to the sound of a frenzied banging on his front door. He glanced at the clock on his bed-side table. It was 9:58. He sighed and rolled out of bed, smiling momentarily at the thought of him sleeping on his bed, in his clothes "like a flippin' kid." He staggered to the door and opened it. Karen ran past him inside, laughing. Alex watched her go, grinning, before turning back to the door to meet the glare of his sour-faced grandfather.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, storming into the flat.

"Sorry?" Alex asked wearily, closing the door and following him into the living room.

"Seven times, I've called you over the last two days! _Seven_! And whenever I come over, you're not in!"

"I've... been out," Alex managed.

"What, with that Doctor? Again?" Alex nodded, resigned to the impending lecture. "You spend all of your time with the man! It's not healthy! He's at least ten years older than you. And I don't trust that woman either. She's mouthy and horrible!"

Alex felt this was the time to step in. "There is _nothing_ wrong with Donna," he fired back. "She's one of the kindest, most caring people you could ever meet, if you gave her half a chance,"

"Can I meet her?" Karen asked, coming into the room, totally oblivious to the confrontation taking place. "I like your friends."

Alex chuckled sadly and tousled her hair. "No, sorry." She frowned and hit Alex on the leg, smiling.

"So she's the kindest person in the world, yet you won't let your little sister meet her?" their grandfather harshly whispered in exasperation as Karen ran back out of the room towards the toilet. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"She's gone!" Alex replied, heatedly, feeling another surge approaching.

"Gone where?"

Alex was struggling to maintain his composure. "Home," he managed. "The Doctor took her home."

Granddad sighed, his face softening. He knew this was one argument he couldn't win, so changed tact. "What about your grandmother? Have you even visited her grave since the funeral?" he asked, going down the guilt-trip route.

"Of course I have!" Alex shot back, offended. "The Doctor took me,"

"That bloody Doctor! Do you talk of no-one else?"

"You asked!" Alex said defensively.

Granddad looked ready to shout back another response but before he could, Karen came skipping back into the room, her long brown hair shimmering in the weak light of the slowly-dying bulb hanging from the ceiling. He just sighed once more. "Look, just cultivate your other friendships a bit. Don't make that Doctor your life,"

"I won't," Alex muttered, thinking that that might be too late.

"C'mon Kaz, we're going," he called, opening the door to the flat.

Alex felt a stab of irritation as Granddad used the name only Alex referred to Karen as. She also put on an annoyed face but, after hugging Alex tightly around the legs, took her grandfather's hand and merrily skipped out of the door. Alex waved a falsely cheery goodbye as they descended the stairs of his flat before slamming his front door angrily. He strode back into the living room and threw himself into the large armchair there, still fuming. After a moment's thought, he got up and also left the flat, slamming the door once more.

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex pulled up into one of the many available parking spaces. He had a few days to kill before the Doctor came back, and this was something Alex had really wanted to do. Maybe he'd come again before the Doctor returned, he thought idly. He got out of the car that he'd parked strategically beneath a large weeping willow, thinking that it would provide ample shade so that he wouldn't bake when he got back inside – the radio had informed him that today would be the hottest day of the year so far. He pushed open the gate to the graveyard and quietly treaded between the gravestones, making a beeline for two graves in particular.

"Hey guys," he whispered when he arrived. He had arrived at the graves of Cass and Fleur Morgan, his parents. Alex knew he would never fully get over their deaths, but the Doctor's assurance that the thing that had killed them also died gave him a slightly sadistic satisfaction. He hadn't any money in his flat to stop and buy flowers for their graves, but he knew they wouldn't have cared. Just the fact that he was there would've been enough for them. He stood still and in silence for a moment or two, collecting his thoughts. Then, he smiled briefly to the graves and turned, walking a few rows to the right.

Eventually, he reached the third grave that meant something to him; that of his grandmother. She'd died fairly recently of a terrible illness. Despite her husband's, grandson's and friends' begging, she had categorically refused to go to the hospital or even to a doctor, though she didn't say why. The last few days of her life had been incredibly painful for her, with only ibuprofen and paracetamol to relieve her of her pain. Alex had even considered going to buy some morphine on the black market, but his grandfather had forbidden it. Alex had struggled to maintain his composure at the funeral; she had been his rock during the aftermath of his parents' deaths. The Doctor had been brilliant, insisting that he be allowed the join Alex to the funeral, though to stand at the back, out of sight. "Just in case," he had assured Alex.

Alex turned again and headed towards the fourth and final grave he had come to visit. He had only visited a few times so was unsure of its exact location. He scanned the names on the headstones he passed – Georgia Turner 1956 – 2004. Samuel Harveys 1901 – 1975. Jamie Cosgrove 2006 – 2007. Geoffrey Noble 1941 – 2008. Elizabeth and William Gladstone 1846 – 1892 and 1844 – 1899. Alex stopped suddenly and backtracked to Geoffrey Noble. He noted the name and date of death. He stared in shock as he realised he had unwittingly arrived at the grave of Donna Noble's late father. "I'm sorry," he told the gravestone simply. Thinking of Donna again, though keeping his face this time, he continued the search. Geraldine Lees 1966 – 1996. Arthur Moore 1890 – 1916. Finally, he found it. Elliot Mansfield 1984 – 2007. The grave of his best friend, dead for just under a year. Alex cast his mind back to the night of his death, a night that would be cemented in his mind forever. It was the night that Alex met his first alien life form, a Sontaran (though technically, he had met the Doctor beforehand). He recalled how the Sontaran had laughed maliciously as he fired the laser that had brought an end to Elliot's short life. Alex stopped thinking about that fateful night – too painful. He'd had enough. He touched Elliot's gravestone gently, and then turned back to walk out of the gate. He was not pleased by what he saw.

"What the hell are you lot doing here?" he demanded as he marched towards the gate. Three large UNIT jeeps had pulled up in the car park and soldiers were piling out of each, guns in hand. Alex aimed his question at the man who appeared to be in charge; he was the only one not wearing the red beret that most UNIT soldiers wore. Alex surprised himself in how forceful he was acting, noting that he'd just shouted down a group of twelve fit young men, most of whom were heavily armed.

"Alex Morgan?" the man asked, holding up a hand to order his troops to stand easy and lower their weapons. Alex simply nodded. The man held out a hand, which Alex grudgingly shook. "General Thomas sir, 3rd rank and leader of UNIT field op group 242," Thomas announced proudly as he saluted. "We've been trying to track you down for some time, as a matter of urgency."

Alex nodded again, slightly bemused. "Right. Why the..." Alex finished by gesturing towards one of the high-tech machine guns in the arms of a nearby soldier.

"Standard issue for field missions sir. Is there somewhere private nearby that we can talk? As I said, it is a matter of urgency."

Alex glanced around theatrically at the sleepy village road. There was no-one else in the graveyard, and only three or four empty cars scattered around the car park. Other than Alex and the soldiers, there wasn't a living soul within sight. "Won't here do?" Alex asked.

Thomas rolled his eyes. He made another hand gesture to his soldiers that was completely incomprehensible to Alex. The soldiers however seemed to understand it straight away and immediately organised themselves into a circle surrounding Thomas and Alex, facing outwards with their guns cocked and ready.

"Is that necessary?" Alex asked.

"Entirely. Now then," Thomas said as he removed a file from under his arm. He read aloud from it. "'Alexander Cass Morgan, 24 years old, born 17th May 1984, currently resides at flat 12 on the fourth floor of Shacklebolt House on Kingsford Road'. Correct?"

"Y-yeah," Alex uttered, slightly surprised at the folder containing his entire life in facts and figures. A folder he had no idea even existed.

Thomas went on. "'One sibling, female, six years old by the name Karen Fleur Morgan. Parents deceased in the Racnoss attack on London of Christmas 2007. Grandmother also recently deceased; sibling currently in residence with grandfather'. Yes?"

Alex simply nodded.

"No spouse or significant other, lives alone. Is a known associate of the one known as the Doctor."

Alex noted that Thomas didn't ask him to confirm the facts this time. He knew the last one. It was a statement, not a question. Suddenly, it became clear to him why UNIT had the file on his life. "And?" Alex ventured.

"Where is he?" Thomas asked boldly.

Alex decided it was best not to play stupid. "I don't know. He dropped me off home for a couple of days. We both had to clear our heads."

"Why?" Alex didn't reply, holding Thomas' gaze. Thomas nodded slowly, and then continued. "Can you contact him?"

"No," Alex shook his head. Thomas sighed in exasperation. "I left my phone on the TARDIS. Why d'you need him?"

Thomas' face showed worry for the first time. He took a deep breath and replied. "Alien ships headed our way. We don't recognise them. We've calculated their flight path and a rough landing area. But they aren't crashing, or out-of-control. They're heading directly towards us, with a purpose. And God save us all when that purpose becomes clear."

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex was back in his flat. He'd reluctantly agreed to meet Thomas and his men at a pre-arranged spot. Apparently, the landing spot was estimated to be somewhere in the wood about fifteen miles from Alex's home. UNIT had already cordoned off the whole area under the pretence of a military training exercise. Thomas had told him to bring a torch and "anything the Doctor would bring." Alex had the perfect tool for this last request. When he and the Doctor's other companions had towed Earth back to its place in the universe, the Doctor had passed him the Sonic Screwdriver to use on the console. In the drama of it all, he'd forgotten to take it back, and Alex had found it in his trouser pocket that morning. He placed it back there, hoping that wherever the Doctor was, he wouldn't need it. The ETA of the alien ship was 10:05. Thomas had requested that Alex meet him at the northern outskirts of the wood at 9:30. Alex glanced at the clock. 9:04. Just about time to go. He turned to walk towards the front door when, to his surprise, there was a rapid tapping on it. He switched the television off and went to answer it.

"Oh my God, it's a miracle!" cried a female voice in false shock as he opened the door.

"Daisy!" Alex greeted. Daisy, Alex's ex-fiancée and good friend pushed her way into the flat, causing Alex to sigh in slight irritation and check his watch. "A miracle?" he enquired, closing the front door again and following her into the living room.

"The fact that you're bloody here!" she cried, rounding on him. "In the flesh! I can actually touch you!" She emphasized her point by poking Alex in the chest, hard. "You _haven't_ been magically turned into an answering machine after all! That's a relief!"

Alex rolled his eyes. He probably should have expected this. "I've been busy," he began.

"What, for nine months?" Alex realised how affected Daisy had been by his absence. She seemed to be genuinely angry with him, yet pleased to see him. Eventually she smiled, fleetingly, showing her willingness to make amends. "Where've you been?" she asked, shaking her head.

How to respond to that? "Here and there," Alex eventually replied. It was an incredibly weak response, but what else could he say? Daisy closed her eyes momentarily, took a deep breath, and put her hands on her hips. Alex checked his watch again. "Listen, Dais, I have to be somewhere, can we do this another time?"

"Somewhere? Is that 'here' or 'there'?" she asked sarcastically, hands still on her hips. Suddenly, her eyes lit up as an idea popped into her head. "No! You don't have to tell me where 'somewhere' is. I know where it is. It's the pub. With me. Now. Come on,"

"No, Daisy," Alex struggled as Daisy seized his hand and began pulling him towards the front door. "I really do have to be somewhere important,"

"More important than your friends?" she demanded, rounding on him again angrily. "More important than me?"

Alex stared into her beautiful eyes for what seemed like an eternity. The perfect escape. That was what the Doctor had promised him. An escape where he could come home _any time he wanted_. Despite this promise, Alex realised just how little time he'd spent at home since meeting the Doctor. He'd grab fleeting visits to see Karen, to visit his parents' graves, to attend his grandmother's funeral. But when it came down to it, when was the last time Alex had socialised with his friends, for the fun of it? His _human_ friends? Alex couldn't even remember; he'd been so wrapped up in the Doctor and fighting evil. The man had barely been gone 24 hours and already Alex was preparing to go and fight alien invaders, armed with a torch and a small screwdriver. He remembered his grandfather's plea that morning – "Cultivate your other friendships... don't make that Doctor your life."

Alex took the torch out of his pocket and placed it on the small table beside the door. "'Course not," he smiled. He followed Daisy out of the door and down the stairs. If a heavily-armed group of soldiers specifically trained to deal with alien threats couldn't handle one invasion force on their own, then UNIT wouldn't be around for much longer.

T H E I K – H A A L S

"So where were you going tonight then? What was so important?" Daisy asked as the barman walked away to fetch a couple of glasses.

"Oh. Nothing to worry about. They'll cope without me." Alex wasn't looking at Daisy, but he caught her shoot him a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye.

The barman came back with two drinks. They thanked him and made a beeline for a nearby table.

"What's with the laptop?" Alex asked, as he sat down at the table and took a sip of his drink. He frowned slightly and put it down. He'd never been particularly keen on drink.

"I wanted to show you something," Daisy smiled as she slid the thin Apple Mac out of its carrying case. "And to ask you something."

"Ask away,"

Daisy seemed to be gathering the courage up before she spoke. She drew a long gulp from her drink and, after what seemed like an age, she looked at Alex. "Remember... that night. With the alien thing. In the blue." Alex's stomach dropped. What blue? The TARDIS? The Doctor's suit? "The potato head."

"Oh," Alex said, almost smiling. "Yeah. What about it?"

Without a word, Daisy opened the laptop. The screen fired up and displayed a picture covering the whole monitor. Alex's eyes were drawn to what was inside a red circle to the top-left of the photo. It was unmistakably Alex, stood between the Doctor and Donna. There were a number of UNIT soldiers running around in a dark factory and there, in the top-right, a group of Sontaran warriors, marching in a battle formation. It was a photo from the attempted Sontaran invasion from earlier that year. It even had a UNIT stamp in the bottom corner. Keeping his composure, Alex plastered what he hoped was a bemused look on his face and turned his eyes back to Daisy.

"What's that then?"

"Those blue alien things." Daisy pointed at the Sontaran troupe. "That bloke who talked down the alien thing." She pointed at the Doctor. "You."

Alex didn't speak. Daisy moved onto the next photo.

"Got this from a website. Run by a conspiracy theorist. Reckons he's tracked _him_" - she clicked back to the Sontaran picture and pointed at the Doctor – "through _time_."

"_What_?" Alex said, laughing a false laugh.

Daisy didn't laugh. She went back to second photo. "This one was taken at some high-class party back in 1926. And look who shows up." She pointed at a specific spot on the grainy image.

Alex took a closer look and saw the Doctor, stood between Donna and Reverend Golightly – the Vespiform. Alex cast his eyes to the left of the image, looking for himself. He found himself talking to Lady Eddison. "Pretty bad picture. How can you be sure that's him?" Alex asked, laughing again, though less convincingly.

"Because you're there too," she said bluntly, moving her finger directly where Alex had hoped she wouldn't. His face fell. "And then there's this one!"

The next image was a much clearer image. Alex recognised himself, in the forefront of this image. He and Captain Jack Harkness were carrying an unconscious Doctor into the TARDIS as Donna and Rose Tyler hurried behind them, both teary-eyed. This was the moment the Doctor had nearly regenerated. Alex frowned, wondering who in God's name had even taken this picture.

"Do I even need to point you out this time?" Daisy asked forcefully.

Alex shook his head sheepishly, gathering his thoughts. It was wholly unlikely he was going to be able to talk his way out of this one... "Look, I-"

_Boom._

The colossal sound had come from outside. The entire building shook and the lights flickered but stayed on. Alex could hear screaming outside

"Earthquake?" Daisy asked, voice shaking.

"No," Alex muttered, looking at his watch. It was 10:05 precisely. "Way worse than an earthquake." It looked like UNIT had calculated the flight path wrong.


	31. The Ikhaals: Two

_A shorter part than I'm used to. That's because I've planned out which events are going to happen in each part for this story, rather than writing at random and thinking "That's a good place to end it!" There's going to be four parts to this story. Overall, slightly longer than usual, because it's in the place of a two-parter!_

_Oh, and you pronounce their name Ik (to rhyme with 'sick') – harl (to rhyme with 'snarl')_

_You know, there's a glitch in this fanfiction... if you review it, you intantly get +100 Internets... :)_

The Ik-haals – Part Two

Before Daisy could respond, Alex had jumped from his seat and raced through the doors of the pub. There, impossibly, standing in the centre of the square outside and towering over everything around it, was a spaceship. A colossal spaceship, at least 30 metres long by around 20 wide. It was at least four storeys high. Coloured silver and black, it was a sight to behold. Cars had screeched to a halt either side of it and many people were abandoning their cars, running in terror. Some however, were banding together around it, trembling and gazing at the ship in awe. Alex grinned despite himself. Daisy had followed him out of the pub and stared at the ship, mouth agape.

Majestically, the centre of the bottom of the ship began to slowly descend. A small, silver platform lowered, and standing on it, were three people... if you could call them people.

All three wore baggy, black robes, making it impossible to see what their bodies looked like. Two of the figures kept the hoods of their robes up, entirely obscuring their faces, whereas the foremost figure had his down. It was humanoid, but its heads was not. It was similar to the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but not with quite so large a snout, nor with the razor-sharp teeth. It had two, deep-set eyes and had one single horn on its forehead. All three creatures appeared deep in conversation as they appeared. When the platform stopped, the un-hooded creature stepped forward and held up its arms graciously. The sleeves to the robe fell away slightly to reveal scaled arms and two hands, three razor-sharp claws on each. Alex watched with interest.

"H-hello-o," it stuttered, in broken English. "Ap... apologiez for thees... my m-mind is not fin-finished assimil...asim...assimilating your language." It raised an arm and tapped the horn on top of its head. Its facial expression changed into what Alex assumed was a smile. "Ah. I think that is it. You will forgive my siblings if they do not speak. The psychic language assimilation process is a challenging one."

Those people who had stayed to watch stood in complete silence, most of them still gazing up at the spaceship, or else ogling the three aliens stood before them. Alex didn't recognise this species, or indeed their ship. He decided not to bring attention to himself just yet. He waited for the creature to continue.

"Humans. We are the Ik-haals. We come from the planet Kandor, the fourth planet of the Arcturus system."

"Then why don't you go back there?" shouted out an obnoxious voice nearby where Alex stood.

"Oi," Alex called warningly to the man nearby. That was un-called for, he thought. The Ik-haals seemed harmless enough. "Leave them alone,"

"I thank you," the Ik-haal said, bowing kindly to Alex, before turning back to the group at large. "But alas, we cannot! For you see, the planet Kandor is in danger. Our planet's magnetic field is in turmoil, and as a result, our atmosphere abandons us! If left to its own devices, our dear planet will be ripped apart within just one of your human months."

The Ik-haal was forced to duck out of the way, as half a brick came flying out of the crowd towards its head. "We don't care, we can't 'elp you!" shouted the same obnoxious voice from earlier. A murmur of discontent rippled through the crowd. Mob psychology in action. Alex had seen this before. It was time to step in.

"Stop it!" he shouted. He pushed his way to the front of the crowd and stepped forward, cautiously, towards the Ik-haal leader. The creature was looking around him, nervously. "I'm sorry," Alex said to it emphatically, holding up a hand to it. It was much taller up close. "The people of Earth aren't used to meeting friendly... _foreigners_. It scares them." He raised his voice as the murmurs of the people increased in volume.

"But not you?" the Ik-haal enquired with interest.

Alex smiled. "I have experience... One moment." He turned around to face where the majority of the crowd were stood. "Oi!" he yelled, to no avail.

"Try this," the Ik-haal said. It handed him a small, circular device. Alex looked at the creature questioningly, who smiled and pressed a button on the side. "Speak into this hole," he said.

Alex raised it uncertainly and spoke. "Oi," he repeated. The murmuring stopped instantly, but everyone in the immediate vicinity grimaced and covered their ears. Alex winced and took it away from his mouth. "Sorry," he called. He handed it back to the creature beside him. "I think I'll just shout." He smiled warmly, before facing the crowd once again. "Now, listen! These people have done nothing to you. These people came to ask for help. Is it any surprise that you lot haven't met decent aliens before? _This_ is their _welcoming_ party! Now you lot need to listen to me. Not all species from other worlds are Daleks! Not all species from other worlds want to destroy you, or choke you, or turn you into fat!" He paused, surprised even with himself. He looked around at the crowd. His eyes met Daisy's who had raised eyebrows and was staring directly at him. He smiled weakly at her and went on. "So. If you want to go, go. No-one's stopping you." He looked around at the group of people. Slowly, but surely, there was movement in the crowd as people dispersed. Some were on mobiles, probably to the police or army.

"Thank you very much," the lead Ik-haal said to Alex as the majority of people disappeared, some running away, some sloping.

"That was a bit cheesy," Alex muttered, repeating his speech back to himself in his head.

The Ik-haal didn't respond. It was probably internally questioning the significance of cheese to the current situation.

"Anyway," Alex continued. "That man was right. _We_ can't help you. But there's a man who can, I can get him for you."

"The Doctor," the Ik-haal stated. "That man is well-known throughout the universe, my boy." Its face morphed into its strange smile-like expression again, apparently amused at Alex's surprise. "We know. The Doctor's preference for the people of Earth is well-documented. Since the loss of Gallifrey, our Government theorised Earth would be our best hope of finding him."

"I-" Alex began to talk, but was interrupted almost instantly.

"I wonder. You, alone, have shown us kindness."

"Oh, don't worry. I mean, you aren't hostile or anything, I doubt I-"

"I wonder if you would like a tour of our ship? Be Ambassador for Earth!" it smiled, interrupting again. "You will not have seen a ship like this before, I think. Please," it raised its hand and gestured towards the platform, upon which the other two Ik-haals stood, motionless.

Alex hesitated. "Oh... I don't know, I mean-"

"I insist!" the Ik-haal insisted, seizing Alex's arm and pulling him towards the ship. Its grip was surprisingly strong. Alex struggled, to no avail.

"Alex!" Daisy called, breaking free from the slowly-dispersing crowd and running after Alex and the Ik-haal. "What are you doing?"

The Ik-haal stopped pulling him momentarily and smiled warmly again, almost encouraging him. "Don't worry," Alex said to Daisy eventually. "I'll be fine."

"Of course you will! Now," he put an arm around Alex's shoulder and walked him onto the platform. "Ascend!" he called up. Almost instantaneously, the platform began to rise from the ground.

"I'll be fine," Alex repeated to Daisy as she disappeared from view.

T H E I K – H A A L S

The leading Ik-haal had introduced himself as Sao-guom, and was quite friendly towards him. He carefully explained the uses for various machines in various rooms and gave Alex demonstrations. He seemed to be especially proud of what he called the Electronic Inducer. What it was for, he didn't say. What he did say however, was that it packed up to 600 volts of pure electricity, to be discharged whenever Sao-guom thought necessary.

"And this," he said, leading Alex from the dank, narrow corridor into about the twelfth room. "This room, we call, simply, the Magnet Cell. Come, sit."

Sao-guom strode across the room and sat on what appeared to simply be a large, rectangular metallic-looking block placed in the corner of the room. It was the size of a small bed. Alex, feeling the eyes of Sao-guom's assistants burning into the back of his neck, obliged and followed Sao-guom and sat on the block, which turned out to be rather colder than he had expected.

"So what's this for?" Alex wondered aloud, patting it slightly.

Sao-guom clapped his hands. One of the Ik-haals standing by the door walked forward and handed a device to Sao-guom. "I think a demonstration would be of more use, Alex my friend." Alex smiled weakly as Sao-guom held the device aloft. "Give me your hand, dear boy."

Hesitating again, Alex acquiesced. He held his right hand out in front of him and Sao-guom held the device against it. He pressed a button on the side of it. A stabbing pain shot through Alex's hand and he cried out in surprise, slapping his hand onto the block to numb the pain. "What was that?" he cried.

"Again, I think a demonstration would be rather more beneficial," the creature smiled. He stood up and gestured for Alex to follow him out of the room.

Alex sighed inwardly and got up from the block. Without meaning to, however, he quickly found himself sitting back on the block. He tried getting up again, but was pulled back onto it for a second time. He looked up at Sao-guom in confusion. "What's going on?" A third time he attempted to get up, and a third time he was pulled back to his cold seat.

Sao-guom chuckled. "Remember its name, Alex. The Magnet Cell. Come, try to raise your right hand."

Alex did as he was asked. Why was his hand so heavy all of a sudden? He had barely raised his hand twenty centimetres from the block before it pinged back to the slab, as if attached to it by elastic. He tried again. The same thing happened. He got to his feet and pulled his right hand with his left. He got nearly a metre from the block before being pulled back to it.

"I placed a small electromagnetic chip into your hand. The connection it has to the metal you sit on now is almightily strong. To break the connection is near impossible... until, of course, the charge wears off. A new chip must be inserted into a prisoner every thirty-six hours."

Alex listened in horror. What had he let himself in for? He could only hope that UNIT came to their senses and got to the ship, fast. "What're you going to do with me then?" he whispered.

Sao-guom frowned. "Why, release you, of course." He pressed a second button on the gadget in his hands, and Alex felt the strain in his hand immediately slacken and disappear. "Why would we want to keep you prisoner, my boy? You are a friend of the Ik-haals, are you not?"

"Of course," Alex assured Sao-guom half-heartedly, rubbing his palm. He just hoped he could get off the ship as soon as he could. Sao-guom seemed friendly enough in an odd sort of way. Then again, Sao-guom bringing Alex onto the Ik-haal ship was tantamount to kidnap. He hadn't really wanted to come on board, but Sao-guom had practically forced him. He decided to try the getaway. "Right, well, thanks for the tour," he said cheerfully and confidently to Sao-guom, before theatrically checking his watch. "I'd better be off now. I'll get on to the Doctor as soon as I can, if that's alright with you?"

"Oh, but you can't go now!" Sao-guom cried, placing a clawed arm around Alex's shoulder and steering him out of the Magnet Cell. "You haven't seen the best room!"

"And, uh, which is that?" Alex asked, his eyes locked on the door he was being directed towards. It appeared to be wrought iron, with no window and no conceivable way of opening it.

Sao-guom stepped forward silently and placed a claw to the horn on his head. It lit up for a second or two, and then died down. As soon as Sao-guom broke the connection between his claw and horn, the door faded from view, completely disappearing. Sao-guom stepped back and allowed Alex entry into the room. "It's a psychic door," Sao-guom explained as Alex took in the dark room. "Only an Ik-haal can open it. There's no escape if you aren't one of us."

"So what's this room?" Alex enquired, taking it in. It appeared to be a disused laboratory. Sparks flew from broken pipes on the walls and ceiling, and there were even what appeared to be operating tables and cyber conversion units spread around the room.

"This is the Torture Chamber," Sao-guom informed him.

Alex was unconscious before he hit the floor.

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex groaned as he slowly came round. There was a throbbing in his head that he was constantly aware of. He tried to raise his hand to rub the spot but found that he couldn't. He forced his eyes open, squinting through the dazzlingly hot lights. They weren't dissimilar to those you found on film sets. They had been set up to face directly at him. At the other side of the room, Alex noticed, were Sao-guom and his two associates, deep in conversation as ever. Looking down, Alex realised he was strapped into one of the harnesses that resembled a cyber conversion unit. It had him propped up so that he was almost standing up straight, though not quite. Alex cleared his throat.

"Ah!" Sao-guom smiled, noticing Alex had awoken. He strode forwards and leant on one of the lights trained at Alex's face. "Our young friend has awoken."

"If this is how you treat ambassadors, I'd hate to see how you treat prisoners," Alex spat, beginning to sweat at the heat of the lights.

Sao-guom motioned wordlessly for his two companions to step forward. "I don't believe I have properly introduced my friends to you, Alex." Each Ik-haal came forward and stood on either side of Sao-guom. He put his arm around the one to his left. "This is my dear brother, Sao-fan. He is my constant companion and second-in-command of this ship. Lower your hood, my brother."

Sao-fan obliged. It was almost impossible at first glance to tell the difference between Sao-guom and Sao-fan. But, looking closer, Alex noticed the slight differences; the sharper teeth, the deep-red eyes, the stains (which looked horribly like blood) on the horn on his head. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, child," Sao-fan bowed deeply, keeping eye-contact at all times.

"I'd shake your hand, but I'm kind of tied-up at the moment, so..." Alex tailed off, snidely. He suddenly remembered. "How come you're speaking English? Your 'bro' here said it was too hard a process."

"When we are directing our speech at a single individual, the process is far easier than when we address an entire crowd," the third figure informed him, also lowering their hood.

"And this is my sister," Sao-guom muttered disparagingly.

"Sao-mel," Sao-mel said, giving Alex what seemed like the first genuine smile he had received since boarding the ship. Sao-mel was more distinguishable. She had four claws on her hand instead of three and even less of a snout than her brothers.

"Now that the niceties are out of the way, let us get to business," Sao-guom said authoritatively, pulling up a chair and sitting down. He glared directly at Alex. "How do we save our planet?"

Alex almost laughed. "I don't know!"

"Of course you do. 900 years of Time and Space and you expect us to believe you have not experienced a magnetic field going AWOL?"

Sao-guom seemed to be becoming accustomed to Earth slang, Alex thought. He also appeared to be crazy. "That's the Doctor you plank. I'm not the Doctor, I'm human! I'm not 900 bloody years old."

Sao-guom jumped up and kicked his chair away, sizing up to him. "Do not think you can fool us!" he shouted in Alex's face. "I have heard about your people's superiority complex. You will help us, Doctor. Willingly or forcibly, it is your choice."

"Brother!" Sao-mel interrupted. She had her eyes closed and had both hands on her horn and seemed deep in concentration. "Brother, he is telling the truth. He is not the Doctor."

"Of course he is," Sao-guom spat. "Our scans confirmed that."

Sao-mel shook her head. "No, Sao-guom. He tells the truth. My psychic analysis confirms it. The boy is not the Doctor."

Sao-guom whirled round and seized Sao-mel by her robe. "You know the punishment if we fail to return with the information we seek," he whispered menacingly. "Only the Doctor can provide us with it. If this boy is not him, then who is?"

"What do you know of the Time Lords?" Alex spoke up. "Of their biology? Huh? Have you heard of the binary vascular system?"

Sao-guom still held Sao-mel by her robe. "Explain," he ordered.

Sao-mel stuttered, but explained, eyeing Sao-guom's sharp claws at all times. "The people of Gallifrey have two hearts. A binary vascular system. It is a trait not found in humans."

Sao-guom dropped Sao-mel. He touched his horn with a single claw before walking over to a piece of equipment with a monitor on it. He touched a finger to the monitor a couple of times and shouted out in anger. "The boy has one heart," he concluded. "How were our scans so ineffectual?" he shouted, this time aimed at Sao-fan.

Sao-fan was undeterred. He replied, calmly. "Brother, our scans may have been more effective than you believe. There are tales of the Time Lords, and their far-advanced technology, even of our own people."

"What are you talking about?"

"They say, Sao-guom, that a Time Lord has the ability to turn himself human, with the use of a device called a Chameleon Arch. He literally distorts every single cell in his body. He becomes human, and forgets every Time Lord memory he has collected in his life."

Sao-guom thought for a moment. "Is it reversible?"

"Supposedly. I would need to closely analyse an existing Chameleon Arch to tell you how exactly, though. And, considering there is only one left in existence, that may be a challenge..."

"Sao-fan, if the Doctor has made himself human, how did our scans have picked him up?" asked Sao-mel with interest. "After all, you described how this device changes every single cell to human."

"Oh do be quiet, Sister," Sao-guom commanded. "Sao-fan, how do you propose we unleash the consciousness?"

"I think..." Sao-fan began, deep in thought. He didn't talk for about ten seconds. Eventually he sneered callously. "We shall have to _force_ the Doctor to reveal himself."

Sao-guom sniggered spitefully. "Fetch it, my Brother."

Sao-fan turned and walked towards the door, which he opened by placing a hand on his horn. Sao-guom and Sao-mel stood in silence as they waited, a troubled look on Sao-mel's face. Whatever Sao-fan had gone to get, Alex thought, he didn't like the thought of.

"I admit, Doctor, I am surprised," Sao-mel said to Alex, suddenly. "The stories of you talk of such determination, such strength of mind. And yet, you have barely spoken since we revealed ourselves to you."

"That is my doing, Sister. I am controlling the speech centres of his brain. I do not have the patience for the prattling of the weak, unless it is something useful."

Alex realised he hadn't even tried to verbally protest at the Ik-haals' treatment of him for a while now, let alone try and convince them of his innocence. Although he was incapable of making a noise, his mouth still dropped open in horror and his eyes widened as the door to the chamber disappeared and Sao-fan wheeled in a certain horrific piece of machinery.

"Do you remember the Electronic Inducer, Doctor?" Sao-guom asked him snidely. "Do you remember how much energy it can discharge?" Alex simply nodded, fearfully. "Sao-fan, attach the probes..."


	32. The Ikhaals: Three

_Blimey. Talk about a delay in updates. But, when Writer's Block strikes, there is very little you can do!_

_If you're unsure about this particular story... so am I! All I can tell you though, is that it's more of an arc-driven story than a plot or character-driven one. Hopefully the next and last part will be better, since there'll be much more of the Doctor :)_

The Ik-haals – Part Three

It was dark when Alex awoke. Pitch black. He was sprawled out face-down on what he assumed was some sort of bed. He groaned and put his left hand to his forehead, before sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. As his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he cast his mind back to the previous night. He remembered being strapped to the Electronic Inducer. Sao-guom and Sao-fan laughing as they shocked Alex, trying to force out of him that which they could not force out. He remembered screaming in agony, the shrill cries reverberating around the room and around his head. He must have passed out and been thrown into here, wherever here was.

"_Reveal yourself!" Sao-guom bellowed. "Reveal yourself and the pain will stop!"_

Alex forced himself to his feet. He bent over the bed, leaning on it, breathing deep. He was still lightheaded. He took a deep breath and pushed himself upright, before being pulled back onto the bed by an unseen force.

"Oh God..." Alex muttered, realising where he'd been put. He got back to his feet and pulled at his hand. It came away from the bed but was soon pulled back. The Ik-haals had dumped him in the Magnet Cell.

"_Let's just kill him," Sao-fan crowed, reaching for a dial on the machine. "Then he may regenerate!"_

Using his free hand, Alex grasped his wrist and yanked, harshly and firmly. He managed to back away at least two metres before being pulled back at force. He groaned in pain as his wrist bent the wrong way.

"_No!" ordered Sao-guom, slapping his hand away. "We must keep him on the brink of death! It is our best chance of success!"_

Alex glanced around the room, his eyes now fully accustomed to the dark. From what he could make out, the Cell was small, no more than about 5 metres by 5 metres, at a push. He couldn't remember seeing anything useful in there from when he had been given the tour. He assumed that the magnetic field was such that he'd be pulled back to the bed from anywhere in the room.

"_Stop it!" Sao-mel shouted in earnest as Alex unleashed another blood-curdling scream. "Stop it, you're killing him!"_

Alex got to his feet again. He limbered up, shaking out his legs and free arm. Again he grasped his magnetised wrist and pulled. He dug his heels into the ground and stepped backwards, slowly. It was an almightily bizarre experience. He turned his body and walked forward with herculean effort, as if he were waist-deep in quick-sand. Still, he managed to make it to the door. He hurriedly pounded on the door before holding onto the doorframe with his free hand. He began to sweat as a portion of the door disappeared into nothingness. Apparently this was also a psychic door.

"What?" asked Sao-fan, sounding rather bored. Though he was only visible from the neck up, Alex could tell he was slouching, probably, again, from boredom. Alex wondered how he could use this to his advantage.

"Can I come out now?" he asked, thinking it would be worth a go all the same.

Sao-fan chuckled. "I don't think so. How are the burns?" he asked in mock concern.

"Burns?" Alex asked. Thinking about it, if he didn't remember the treatment he had received the previous night, he wouldn't have a clue it had even happened. He certainly didn't have the scars, or indeed the burns, to prove it.

Sao-fan rolled his eyes. "Don't waste my time again." He put his hand through the gap in the door and pulled Alex's hand off of the doorframe. He went soaring back through the air as his hand flew towards its master, yearning to be reunited. His hand crashed into the bed and Alex went with it. For the third time in less than 24 hours, Alex was unconscious.

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex felt he would never get used to the sensation of waking up after being knocked unconscious. His head spun and he felt sick. He looked around, noting that he was still in the Magnet Cell. How long had he been out? An hour? Two? More? He was lying on the ground next to the bed with his hand connected uncomfortably to the top of it.

Alex struggled to his feet. Shaking his head, Alex glanced down at his magnetised hand. He tried to raise it. It came away more willingly, but nevertheless pinged back with fair force. He pulled it up again and lay down on the bed, creating a barrier with his body, seeing if he could block the weak connection. He released his hand and it slammed into his chest. The pain was unbearable. It felt like Alex's very own hand was about to force its way through his chest in a bid to reunite with its kin. Slowly – and painfully – Alex slid his hand across his chest and let it slam back into the block. He breathed a sigh of relief.

The physics of the Magnet Cell didn't seem to fit with that of Earth understanding. Although, over time, it became easier to resist the pull and drag oneself away from the block, when the tension was released, the magnetised objects were drawn together as quickly and strongly as ever.

As his hand struck the bed, inspiration struck Alex like a bolt of lightning. It was worth a try, he thought. He pulled his magnetised hand from the bed with his other hand and called.

"Oi. Sao-fan!"

"What?" a voice replied. As Alex had both hoped and expected, Sao-fan had not bothered to come, or even look into the cell.

"I need to tell you something," Alex replied. "Something about the... Doctor." He'd wanted to say Chameleon Arch, but couldn't for the life of him remember if that was what Sao-fan had called the device.

"Like what?" Sao-fan asked. He sounded slightly less bored now. Alex prepared to get into position.

"No, come in. I don't want Sao-guom to hear. It has to be you; I want to tell you quietly."

Alex may not have known Sao-fan for very long, but he recognised that he was a bit of a glory seeker and perhaps even resented his brother's position as head of the family. Alex used this to his advantage. He saw the door to his cell begin to shimmer. Alex hurried into position.

"This had better be good," Sao-fan spat.

He sloped into the room, directly past Alex, who had hidden by the door. Alex knew he would have no chance of escape if he just ran directly through the door, but fortunately, he had a better idea. As Sao-fan adopted a confused expression, wondering where Alex had gone, Alex quickly and quietly positioned his magnetised palm directly behind Sao-fan's head. He released the tension he was putting on his hand.

Sao-fan didn't stand a chance. If his head was between Alex's hand and the block, then his head was coming too. Alex's hand slammed into Sao-fan's head which, in turn, slammed into the large, rock-hard block. He was knocked out cold.

Alex struggled to his feet and rubbed his hand. It was bruised from the impact, but nothing serious. He knelt down to check Sao-fan. He was still breathing... if breathing was a sign of life for the Ik-haalian species. Alex dragged Sao-fan to the corner of the room, so he could not be seen if Sao-guom or Sao-mel happened by the open door. Alex was just leaving when he realised: he wasn't being pulled anymore. He didn't have to force his hand away from the bed anymore. The impact with Sao-fan's head must have broken either the connection or the actual chip in his hand. Either way, that would make the escape considerably easier...

T H E I K – H A A L S

Alex sprinted down the many corridors of the ship, trying to put as much distance between himself and Sao-fan as possible. Who knew how long an Ik-haal stayed unconscious for? It didn't help that he was hopelessly lost with no idea where the exit was.

"What are you doing out?" a voice asked.

Alex spun around to see a hooded figure walking his way. Alex dove into the nearest room in an attempt to arm himself. It was another Magnet Cell. He turned to leave but the figure was already blocking the door. Alex half-heartedly raised his fists in defence.

"Doctor. I don't want to harm you," said the Ik-haal, lowering its hood. It was Sao-mel. "I'm trying to help."

"Just... just tell me how to get off this ship," Alex commanded, breathlessly.

"I can't," Sao-mel said sadly. "If I were to tell you, my brothers would know in an instant." She raised a claw and tapped her horn. "Sao-guom has psychicly specified certain topics. If we cover any of them, my brain waves instantly get recorded."

Alex growled angrily and kicked the magnetic block. "So I'm just supposed to walk around aimlessly, hoping to find an exit? Yeah, great help you are."

"_I_ cannot help," Sao-mel interrupted, raising her voice. "But this can." She handed Alex a small, circular device.

"What is it?" Alex asked, turning it over in his hands.

"It scans your brainwaves and locates the thing you most want to know. Then it connects to the nearest computer system and finds out the information you seek. Use it on the security systems of the ship." She directed him out of the door and pointed him to a small monitor embedded in the wall a little way down the corridor. "You just flip it up," she said, lifting the top of the device and letting it hang on its hinges, "hold this button down for two seconds, release it, and then think about what you want to know."

"And then what?"

"You wait." Sao-mel turned on her heel and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Alex called after her.

"I cannot be here when you use the device," she replied without turning around. "My brothers do not trust me. If they find me with you as you make your escape, they will kill me." With that, she turned the corner and disappeared.

Alex looked at the spot where she had disappeared. At least he seemed to have one friend on the ship. He'd just have to get off the ship as quickly as possible and either find the Doctor, or UNIT, or both.

He turned to the monitor on the wall. It was probably best not to try and interact with it manually. It would probably detect that he wasn't Ik-haalian. Flipping open the device again, he examined it. It didn't look anything special. He pressed the button down for two seconds and released it.

"_How do I get off the ship?"_ Alex whispered quietly, concentrating on the thought with all his might. _"How do I get off the ship?"_

The monitor beeped. Alex opened his eyes. It had worked! The screen displayed a floor plan of that level of the ship and there, a short walk away, was a door marked 'air-lock' with 'escape pod' lying just beyond.

T H E I K – H A A L S

He made it. Taking a hurried look at the monitor outside the pod, Alex climbed through the small window and inside. He was shocked to see that the ship was in space. When had they taken off? Obviously, on one of the occasions that he'd been knocked unconscious. Alex scolded himself momentarily for his stupidity. There, far below, was planet Earth. His closest and only source of assistance, for now at least. He quickly looked over the controls. They seemed simple enough, with a joystick, a button to speed up, a button to break, a button to eject and a button to land. Besides, if he began to crash, he could always use Sao-mel's machine to find out how to fix the problem.

"_If you are ready for launch, please press the eject button_," said an automated voice. Alex chuckled at the simplicity and did as he was told, punching the eject button on the control panel near the door.

"Right," Alex smiled, grasping the joystick with both hands. "Let's find that Doctor."

Suddenly, almost comically, a red, flashing light lit up the pod with an alarm reverberating around it. "_Warning: Life form of non-Kandori origin detected_."

"Not good," Alex muttered, slowly making his way back to the window. It had been blocked off when he'd pressed eject.

"_The bridge will be informed. Oxygen will be removed from the pod_."

"Really not good,"

"_Initiating_."

As the computer spoke, the monitor by the door lit up. It displayed a computerized image of the pod, with a percentage inside it. The percentage was going down. 95%. 90%. 85%. Alex was beginning to breathe heavily.

Thinking fast, Alex shoved his hand inside his pocket and withdrew Sao-mel's device. _"How do I restart the oxygen flow?"_ he thought hurriedly. _"How do I restart the oxygen flow? How do I restart the oxygen flow?"_

Text flashed across the screen, overlaying the image of the pod (75%. 70%) - _"Oxygen flow cannot be resumed once the venting process begins."_

...

Alex lay on the floor, trying to breathe as slowly and shallowly as possible. 25%. 20%. Alex struggled to his feet once more, making a last-ditch attempt to force the window to the pod open. He hadn't been able to smash it in, and it seemed to have jammed when he'd pressed eject.15%.

"Alex!"

Alex's mouth dropped open in shock. He gasped (which was more difficult than he'd remembered). Behind the window, impossibly, was Daisy. Daisy Hilton. The girl he'd last seen disappear beneath him as he'd ascended into the Ik-haal ship.

"What're _you_ doing here?" he asked in amazement. 10%.

"I followed you!" she said, emphasizing her words by pointing first at herself and then through the glass at Alex. Alex's eyes widened further still. She held in her hands the Sonic Screwdriver.

"_Oxygen levels critical_," announced the computer.

Alex didn't waste any time. He took a deep breath before calling through the glass "Daisy! Use the Sonic! Press the button!"

"What?"

"The thing in your hands! You see the button on it?"

"Wh... yeah?" Daisy muttered, holding the Screwdriver like it was a dirty hanky.

"Hold the blue end to the little monitor there and..." Alex paused to cough violently. "And press the big button," he finished, croaking.

Daisy glanced towards the monitor and gasped at what it was showing. 2%. 1%. 0%. She quickly did as she was asked and at last, the window opened. Alex tumbled out of it and simply lay on the ground, taking deep lungful after deep lungful of cool, refreshing air.

"What the hell was that all about?" she cried.

"Never mind that," Alex grunted, struggling to his feet. He took the Sonic out of her hands. "Why the hell are you here and how did you get this?"

Daisy spoke so quickly that Alex struggled to keep up. The platform had lowered again a few minutes after Alex had gone aboard the ship, just for a few seconds. Daisy had assumed it had been a mistake, but she had seized the opportunity and jumped on board. She'd got lost and had wandered the ship for an hour or two. Eventually she'd seen the Ik-haals dragging Alex's unconscious body to the Magnet Cell.

"... and this fell out of your pocket," she finished, taking back the Screwdriver and holding it up. "What is it?"

Alex took it back again. "Right now? Just about the best thing we could hope for." He stopped to think. "Second best," he amended. "Third at a push."

Daisy put her hands on her hips and gave Alex a haughty look. "And what are the other two?"

Alex wandered towards a nearby psychic door and put his hand to it. It seemed solid enough. "That bloke who scared off the alien last year – the Doctor – and his ship. Anyway, that's not important. What _is_ important, is that we can move around the ship more freely now."

Alex held the Sonic up to the psychic door and waited. Slowly – much more slowly than when the Ik-haals touched their horns – but surely, the door began to fade. "Y'see?" Alex grinned, turning to face Daisy. "No problem!"

Her eyes widened. She simply pointed at the door. Alex turned back to it in confusion to find himself nose-to-nose with Sao-guom. Alex recoiled in a mixture of surprise, horror and disgust. Sao-guom raised a clawed hand, in which he held a small pistol. He discharged it twice. Alex and Daisy were both thrown back and they knew no more.

T H E I K – H A A L S

"Wake up, my boy. Wake up." Sao-guom's gravelly voice filled Alex's head as he groggily opened his eyes. He was upright. That was good. No more Magnet Cell. It was only as his surroundings swam into view around him that he realised that the Magnet Cell was probably preferable. "Welcome back to the torture chamber," Sao-guom grinned nastily.

Alex breathed heavily, trying to build up his strength. "Where's Daisy?" he managed.

"The female is still unconscious," Sao-guom said, stepping aside to let Alex see Daisy, also strapped into one of the metallic harnesses. He went on. "And unless you tell me what I want- no. What I _need_ to know, that's how she's staying."

"What d'you need?" Alex murmured.

Sao-guom growled. "What I need, Doctor, is for you to tell me how I am to save my planet! You alone can save my world."

"How many times? I'm not the Do-" Alex was interrupted by a piercing scream that he realised had come from his own mouth. He had been reconnected to the Electronic Inducer.

"The presence of the girl on the ship intensified my suspicions, Doctor. Only you would place a young, innocent girl in such danger."

"I didn't even know she was here!" Alex protested.

"Of course you didn't," Sao-guom sighed. "Of course. But then, my dear Doctor, I found the irrefutable proof. It was foolish, I think, to not have searched you when you first arrived on our ship. But when I did? Oh... what a prize I found." Sao-guom reached into the folds of his robes and withdrew the Sonic Screwdriver. "The Doctor's magic wand," he whispered, waving it slowly back and forth in front of Alex's face. "Can you _possibly_ deny your true identity now?"

"Yes," Alex replied simply, trying – and failing - to lean back and away from Sao-guom's claws as they drew closer.

Sao-guom rolled his yellow eyes. He went on. "And _then_ I found this," he said, holding up the circular device Sao-mel had given him. "A quick psychic analysis confirmed what I held to be true." He tapped his horn. "My sister provided you with this device."

"No-"

"_Yes_. She did. She admitted it. Do not lie to me. She is currently imprisoned in a Magnet Cell, awaiting punishment. _Your_ Magnet Cell, as it turns out. Which, unfortunately, brings me on to my next qualm with you."

"Another one?"

"Your escape. To have fooled Sao-fan like that would have taken considerable intellect. I commend you for that."

"It wasn't hard. Your brother isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, it seems," Alex smiled sadistically.

"No. He _wasn't_," Sao-guom corrected. "Past tense." Alex frowned in confusion. "He was ordered to ensure you were contained. Those who disobey orders must be executed."

Alex opened his mouth to protest at the inhumanity of this. He quickly closed it when he realised he didn't have the foggiest what to say.

"Now then," Sao-guom continued, waltzing theatrically over to the control panel of the Electronic Inducer. "Shall we try again?"

"I'd really rather you didn't," announced a new, yet familiar voice. "'Cos, to be honest Alex, that scream of yours is unnaturally high-pitched. Now, shall we get you out of there?" the Doctor asked, stepping forward into the light.


	33. The Ikhaals: Four

_Finally! Okay, now that we're done with this episode, we'll be moving onto Vincent and the Doctor shortly :) The good news is, I know Alex's basic role in every episode now right up to A Good Man Goes To War!_

_I feel I might have explained the Ik-haal mythology a bit shoddily at the end there. So if you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll address them in the 'intro' section of the next part. _

The Ik-haals Part Four

Alex just grinned and tilted his head back in relief, staring at the ceiling. The Doctor was there. Finally. Eventually. That was a good point...

"Where the hell have you been?" Alex practically shouted.

"Oh, the gratitude. Right, c'mon. Get up, no time for lying about," the Doctor replied, striding past Sao-guom's bemused face and snatching up the Sonic Screwdriver. He pointed it at the hand shackles binding Alex and then directed it at the ankle shackles. Alex slid out of the harness and landed on the floor, rubbing his wrists. He then extracted the sharp probes from his arms and pulled the Doctor in to a hug

"A strictly 'man'-hug, I presume?" the Doctor asked, muffled.

"Strictly," Alex confirmed.

"If I might interrupt," Sao-guom snarled, stepping between Alex and the Doctor. "Who in the name of Kandor might you be?"

"Oh! Yes, sorry. I'm the Doctor!" the Doctor grinned. "And, according to a mutual friend of ours, so is this." The Doctor put his arm around Alex's shoulders. "So which of us is the real Doctor? The one who's categorically denied it since the moment you met him, or the one who introduced himself as the Doctor?"

"'Mutual friend'?" Sao-guom scowled.

"Yeah. Now, look at this." The Doctor walked over to one of the old consoles, followed by Alex and Sao-guom. He held the Sonic to it and then placed his palm on one of the smaller monitors and pointed to one of the bigger ones as a full bio popped up. "See that? Results of my biology scan. Binary vascular system, slightly lower internal body temperature than humans, and then all these little chemicals swimming about that would kill a human," he turned the monitor off as Sao-guom took a wide-eyed look. "Stone dead."

"But, my brother-"

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I am 904 years old and I'm the man who's going to save this man's life and all thirteen billion on your home planet." Sao-guom stared at him in shock. "I love saying that," the Doctor grinned. "'Course, you would've saved a lot of time and bother if you'd just hooked Alex up to that machine the moment he arrived. Or are you saying I know your own technology better than you do?"

Sao-guom brought himself up to his full height, enraged. "My brother theorised that simply because the boy had the biology of a human, does not necessarily make him human! He told of a Chameleon Arch-"

The Doctor interrupted again. "Yeah, well, he was wrong. I've heard about your siblings actually. I've met them. Well, one of them. Which brings me back to our mutual friend. You know how only an Ik-haal can open those psychic doors of yours, unless you have brilliantly clever technology?"

"Yes..." Sao-guom muttered. The Doctor just grinned, swaying from side to side slightly.

"Hello Brother," sneered a voice as another figure emerged from the darkness. She stood with murder in her eyes, her hood down and her claws poised, grasping the horn on her head like a sword.

"S-Sao-mel," Sao-guom stuttered. "Get back to your cell. That is a direct order. Retreat to your cell!"

As Sao-mel advanced on her brother, Alex took advantage and ran across the room towards Daisy's harness. He put his hand to her chest; there was a heartbeat, but a slow one. She was breathing shallowly but still, she was breathing.

"It's alright," the Doctor announced, putting his thick-rimmed glasses on and glancing at the machines she was hooked up to. "These things are designed to torture, not kill."

"Oh yeah, brilliant," Alex replied sarcastically, cupping Daisy's face in his hands. "She'll be absolutely fine then, will she?"

"Well," the Doctor stuttered. "In time, yeah."

"Brilliant," Alex repeated.

"You might want to duck by the way," the Doctor murmured, removing his glasses and holding Daisy's head in his hands, his thumbs on her temples and his eyes closed.

"To what?"

"Duck,"

"_What_?"

"Duck!" The Doctor placed both hands on Alex's shoulders and pushed him down at the last second. Sao-guom went flying over them. He crashed into the far wall and slid down it, coming to rest on the floor, unmoving. Alex looked around slowly to see Sao-mel standing with one hand on her horn and the other outstretched in front of her. Her eyes were glaring at Sao-guom's motionless body with hatred.

"I've waited for years to do that," she explained as Alex and the Doctor rose slowly to their full heights. "Ever since he was given the position of Lord Chancellor on Kandor. The power went to his head; it overwhelmed him. He only answered to the High President, and he was terrified of him."

"Power and fear," the Doctor said wisely. "Bad combination."

"Won't you get punished for that though?" Alex asked.

"No. The High President will hold no power over I or any Ik-haal, once our planet dies. Which it surely will."

"Not sure ab-" the Doctor began, before a shrill scream pierced all their ears.

Alex whirled round to see Daisy violently convulsing, eyes rolling back in her head and blue electrical energy sparking around her harness and the wires attached to it and her. "Daisy!" Alex shouted, running to her and taking her face in his hands as she stopped moving and became motionless.

"Kandor will die," croaked a voice from the corner of the room. "The Ik-haal species will need a new home. The female is the first human death of the coming war," Sao-guom grinned maliciously, lowering his hand from a large button on the Electronic Inducer.

"And you are the first Ik-haal death," Sao-mel told him. She put her left hand to her horn once more and extended her right towards her brother. The sharp probes that Alex had pulled from his arms flew through the air towards Sao-guom and embedded themselves directly into his eyeballs. He collapsed into a heap, quite dead.

"Daisy? Come on, talk to me Dais'. C'mon. Doctor? Sao-mel? Do something one of you!"

Sao-mel put her hands on Alex's shoulders and pulled him away. "I can't."

"What d'you mean you can't? You're practically a wizard with all this stuff!" Alex raised a hand to an imaginary horn on his head and waggled his fingers. He glared at Sao-mel before turning back to Daisy. He put his cheek in front of her mouth. No breath. No heartbeat. "Doctor?" he whispered, teary-eyed. "Anything you can do?" No reply. "Doctor?" He looked around. The Doctor had respectfully covered Sao-guom with a white sheet – on which red stains were forming – and was closely examining the Electronic Inducer, glasses back on.

"I can save her," he muttered.

"You can?"

The Doctor jumped up and ran over to Daisy's harness. He pulled the needle-like probes from her arms and plunged them into her chest, from which blood spurted out.

"What're you doing?" Alex cried, shielding his eyes from the blood slightly.

The Doctor ran back to the Inducer and turned a dial. "Restarting her heart! The physics of Ik-haal technology is different to yours. I reckon, at a lower setting, this should work as a defibrillator. Shock her back to life!"

"Doctor, she was shocked to _death_!"

"You lot drown in water; you still need it to live!" He adjusted one last dial, and then overdramatically threw down a lever. Alex could practically see the electrons speed down the wire, into the probes and directly into Daisy's chest. The Doctor deftly changed the dials, constantly adjusting the flow of electricity. Daisy twitched and jumped, but didn't wake up. "Am I doing this right?" the Doctor asked Sao-mel. "I don't even know."

"I am not sure. Sao-fan tended to deal with the Inducer. I've only seen it in action a number of times."

"One way to find out," the Doctor grinned, continuing to adjust the dials. Alex nearly protested against this completely blind method of saving Daisy, but if his year with the Doctor had taught him anything, it was that only very rarely do you question his methods. Eventually, after what seemed like eons, she began to twitch more naturally. The Doctor immediately shut off the Inducer so as not to do her any further harm.

"Dais?" Alex whispered to her, taking her face in his hands once more.

"No time for that, c'mon," the Doctor told Alex. He took the Sonic and unbuckled Daisy from the harness and yanked the probes from her chest. He took Alex by the arm and placed it around her shoulder. "Head for the TARDIS. Out the door, down the corridor, first left, fourth door on your right."

"What're you going to do?"

He didn't reply. He walked over to Sao-mel and spoke with her quietly for a moment or two. Alex watched on with interest as he held Daisy upright, her head lolling about slightly. Both the Doctor and Sao-mel smiled, hugged and separated. The Doctor walked back to Alex and Daisy.

"Let's go!" he said cheerily.

"Wait!" called Sao-mel. "Before you go, I would like to talk to you, if that is alright, Alex."

The Doctor simply shrugged and put an arm around Daisy's shoulders, helping her out of the room. Alex watched them go, then turned to Sao-mel. He smiled awkwardly, unsure what to say.

"Alex Morgan," she said. "Not even under the most intense torture did you crack. You would make a good soldier."

Alex chuckled. "I'm alright, thanks."

"I wish for you to take this," Sao-mel said, picking up the circular device from the table Sao-guom had set it down on. "As an apology, of sorts. For the treatment you suffered at the hands of my brothers. Believe me, I did not wish to subject you to such pain, but my brothers insisted."

"I know," Alex told her, smiling as he took the device from her. "I remember. Thank you."

"Use it wisely. You will need all the help you can muster when the Gate arises. I wish you luck," she whispered mysteriously.

"The Gate?" Alex asked in confusion. "What's the G-"

"And when the time comes, far in the future..." Sao-mel interrupted him once more, smiling as she led him from the room and towards the TARDIS. "I wish you congratulations on your loss."

T H E I K – H A A L S

"So you're telling me," Alex said, taking a seat in the console room as the Doctor piloted the TARDIS away from the Ik-haal ship, "that this problem with their planet has happened before?"

"Four times," the Doctor nodded. "Five now. Every 4,373 years. And every time it happens, they come to Earth, looking for me."

"What did Sao-guom say?" Alex pondered, trying to remember his first meeting with the Ik-haal. "'Our planet's magnetic field is in turmoil'? And something about them losing their atmosphere?"

"Is that what they said this time? Nah, it's just the periodic shifting of the magnetic poles of their planet. Thing about the Ik-haals is, they put so much faith in their psychic abilities, they never write anything down. So they don't have any historical records of anything happening before. The next invasion is scheduled for..." the Doctor pressed a button on the console and glanced at the monitor, "6381. I'll probably end up there at some point. You can stop worrying by the way. She'll be fine now. Sao-guom probably lowered the platform to let her onboard on purpose. If they couldn't force me out of you, they'd coerce you. With her."

Alex looked up at the Doctor. Sprawled out on the chair next to him was Daisy, still halfway between conscious and unconscious. For the past five minutes, Alex had been glancing at her and even checking her pulse every few seconds. A question occurred to Alex.

"How did you find us?" he asked. "We were in space. I know; I nearly flew out into it."

"Old friend of mine. And, according to him, yours. Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge Stewart. Works for UNIT. He told me that UNIT had tracked an alien ship but plotted its course wrong so weren't there when it landed. They'd gathered reports from eyewitnesses. And almost every single one gave a report of someone matching your description going on board the ship. Quick scan for alien tech in the immediate vicinity, there you were."

"Clever," Alex raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Never heard of that Brigadier of yours though." Daisy twitched and moaned, apparently having some sort of bad dream. Alex took her hand again and stroked it absent-mindedly before another question occurred. "Why did they think I was you? They'd done scans. The results led them directly to me, thinking I was you."

The Doctor didn't reply immediately. "When you travel on the TARDIS," he eventually responded, "you pick up this, sort of, background radiation. Unique to the TARDIS, which is unique to the universe. You've been here a long time now; you'll have collected a lot of it. I'd be willing to bet they scanned Earth for that energy, which led them to a massive build-up of it. You." The Doctor quickly got back to work, pulling levers and flicking switches. He was almost making a show of it.

"One last question?"

"Yes?" the Doctor sighed, turning to him.

"What exactly is this?" Alex held up Sao-mel's device. The Doctor's facial expression changed to interest. He walked over and plucked it from Alex's hands. "Sao-mel gave it to me."

The Doctor examined it for a few seconds. "Right," he said finally. "Let me explain the Ik-haals to you. The thing about their psychic powers is that they're fixed, they're constant. If your skills aren't good enough to do something, tough. You can't train them. But then, twenty years ago, Earth-time, the most powerful Ik-haal ever was born. Mel, first daughter of the fourth Sao family of the northern plains. She managed to focus her psychic powers in a way like no-one had before her. She worked out how to channel her powers into objects and, not only _con_tain them, but _sus_tain them."

"Like a horcrux?" Alex asked, grinning.

The Doctor looked at Alex in disbelief. "No. Not like a horcrux. Objects, machines that can improve and channel people's psychic abilities."

Alex realised what the Doctor meant. "And this is one of them?" he asked, taking back the object.

"No. This is the _first_ of them. She's given you the prototype. When she gets back to Kandor with the information they needed, she takes her brother's role of Lord Chancellor. She gets funding to research and mass produces these things and others like it."

Alex grinned idiotically, thinking of the friend he had found in the most unlikely of places, finally finding her place in her world.

"She leads the revolution against the entire social system of Kandor. Until her, females were essentially treated like vermin. You must've seen how Sao-guom and Sao-fan treated her. A second-class citizen, right?"

Alex recalled how the two men had shouted at Sao-mel almost as much as they had shouted at him and had more or less ignored her. He nodded.

"All that changes. She brings the females of Kandor out of the dark, as well as the weak. Sao-mel is literally the most important figure in the history of the Ik-haal race," the Doctor grinned. "And we just met her! Ha!"

"Alex!" shouted a voice from behind them. Alex whirled around to see Daisy flailing her arms around, struggling to pull herself into a sitting position.

"Hey! Hey, you're okay!" Alex assured her, taking her hand again and looking into her eyes. "You're fine now, you're with friends."

She looked around at her environment and sighed. "TARDIS, right?"

Alex frowned. "How did you know?"

"Hello Commander Hilton," the Doctor smiled.

Alex looked at the Doctor in disbelief. "_'Commander'_?" he laughed.

"Alex," Daisy interrupted him. Alex turned to her to see her handing him some sort of identification card with her photo on. He read it quickly.

_Unified Intelligence Taskforce officer (UNIT)_

_Commander (Active duty)_

_Hilton, Daisy L_

_Greyhound Nine_

_Issue date: 07/11/2008_

_Expiration date: 07/11/2011_

Alex looked up at her is bemusement. She returned his look, smiling sadly. "You've got some explaining to do," Alex told her.


	34. Meanwhile: Six

_Fear not! Daisy's job at UNIT will be explained in due course. Can't really do that now since, in this fic's chronological timeline, that story happened well over a year ago!_

_I realise I've been shaky at best with the ages of the characters thus far. The ages given in this part are the categoric, definate ages, okay? :D _

Meanwhile in the TARDIS Six

Throwing his front door open, Alex waltzed inside his flat. He threw a bag of presents and the like down just inside his bedroom door and went to take a cold shower to sober-up slightly. He walked into the living room dressed in a towel and flung himself down onto the sofa. That was what a normal birthday was like, he said to himself. No running down the corridors of medieval castles or fighting off gangrenous aliens with a toothbrush and a wet towel. Just a good catch-up with friends and family. Karen had wrapped her arms tight around him when she'd seen him. She was ten now, growing up fast. Daisy had told him of the latest developments at UNIT – since he was a recognised associate of the Doctor, UNIT had given him security clearance, as well as his own ID card. He in turn had told her of the latest developments with the Doctor. Though close friends nowadays, they were essentially unofficial liaison officers between the Doctor and UNIT.

Daisy had in fact travelled with Alex and the Doctor for a few months after the Ik-haal incident. But then, just like so many before her, she had left the TARDIS and gone back to her mysterious job with UNIT, leaving Alex and the Doctor alone once more...

Alex awoke the following morning to the grinding noise of familiar engines in his living room. He leapt out of bed and threw any old clothes on, safe in the knowledge that he could change into something that wouldn't send the fashion police into comas once he was aboard.

"Alex Morgan, reporting for duty, sir!" Alex saluted as he stepped inside the TARDIS. He was stopped from saying anything else however, when a whirl of red hair and blue coats landed a humungous kiss on him, wondering hands pulling him in tightly. Eventually, Alex surfaced – more for air than anything else – and was shocked to see that the immense kissing machine was none other than Amy. "H-hi," was all he could manage.

"Hello," she whispered, taking his hands in hers with adoration in her eyes

"H-hi," he stammered again, utterly confused. "Have I done something to deserve that?"

"Nope. Just not seeing me for _ages_!" she smiled, leaning in again to peck him on the lips.

"Ri-ight. And what does Rory think about that?" Alex asked, glancing around for him.

"Who?" Amy frowned.

"Rory,"

"Who's Rory?"

Alex frowned in confusion and glanced past Amy to the Doctor who was standing on the console level. The Doctor gave him a hard stare and drew a finger across his throat repeatedly – _stop it_.

"Doesn't matter," he smiled at Amy warmly, completely bemused by her behaviour.

"So, good birthday?" Amy asked, leading him up to the console level by the hand. "Oh!" she exclaimed before he could reply. "Have I given you your present yet?"

"Uhh," Alex began. Behind Amy, the Doctor was looking at him and nodding vigorously. "Yep," he lied, shifting his eyes back to Amy.

"Good," she winked seductively. "I'll go and get your card. Back in a sec!" And with that, she jumped up the nearby staircase and flitted from the room.

Alex waited until her excitable footsteps had faded away before rounding on the Doctor. "Okay. What the hell is going on? Why's she kissing me, and holding my hand, and... _winking_?"

"Well how else do you expect her to treat her fiancé?" the Doctor asked. Alex looked at him, half-smiling, half-frowning. "Rory's gone, Alex. He fell into a crack."

Alex's eyes widened and his pulse-rate increased rapidly without him even realising it. "He _what_?"

"He's gone. Shot dead and then absorbed by a crack in the skin of the universe. He never existed."

Alex stared into space for a minute or two, remembering what little he knew about the man. What _did_ he know? He was a nurse. He was from Leadworth, near Gloucester. A bit wimpy but could be very brave when called upon. And he had certainly loved Amy with all his heart. It wasn't much to go on.

"Amy's forgotten him," the Doctor continued. "And, in a world without Rory, she gets engaged to someone else."

Alex looked up and noticed the Doctor was looking directly at him. He held his stare before realising. "Me?"

"You," the Doctor confirmed. "You two are engaged."

"No! No, I can't do that to Rory! He loves her! She loves him!"

"Alex, there's no-one to love! Rory's gone, he was never born! Amy can't remember him, so try not to mourn or grieve or be sad or anything while she's around. Okay? You'd better get used to husbandhood."

Alex began to protest at this, but Amy came bouncing back into the room and pressed a green envelope into his chest. "Happy birthday," she whispered, kissing him again. "We saw you."

"Saw me?"

"Yeah! It was 2020. Future us, we were standing on this hill in the distance, looking at us. It was really weird,"

"Ri-ight," Alex muttered, attempting to get his head around this.

"We met Silurians," the Doctor explained.

"Oh yeah?" Alex asked, placing his backside on the edge of the console and leaning on it. "Vastra's lot?"

"No, no, no. Different ones." The Doctor explained, with occasional inputs from Amy, what had happened to them during their brief encounter with the Homo Reptilia, culminating with the destruction of the drilling machine and the sighting of Alex and Amy on a hillside in the distance.

"So, where to now? Oh Alex!" Amy interrupted herself. She was certainly acting rather hyper. "You missed it. The Doctor took me to Arcadia too, it was amazing!"

She sat Alex down on one of the chairs at the console and proceeded to sit on his lap with her arm around his neck. The Doctor grimaced and walked around the console slowly, pulling levers and pressing buttons seemingly at random.

"It's this planet in the 26th Century? It was this, sort of, holding place for human colonies. It had fields of diamonds, growing like... plants! _Fields_! Better than this old thing," she smiled cheekily and held up her hand.

Alex looked at it, confused, still slightly shocked at how Amy was acting towards him. "What old thing?"

Amy glanced at her hand too. "Where's my ring?" she frowned.

Alex looked past her at the Doctor, who surreptitiously reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, red wedding ring box, one that had belonged to Rory and contained his and Amy's engagement ring. "Don't you remember?" Alex asked, inventing wildly. "I took it to get it cleaned. It was dirty after all that... Venetian... rain," he finished lamely. The story seemed to satisfy Amy however, who shrugged.

"Oh yeah. Anyway, open your card!" she slapped Alex on the arm and stood up. "Come on then Doctor. Where are we going?"

"Wherever you'd like, Amelia," the Doctor smiled.

Alex looked down at the envelope Amy had given him. He flipped it over and slid his finger under the flap, opening it. He took it out, chuckled slightly at the front and opened it. He frowned.

"I can't remember the exact name of it," Amy went on as Alex became immersed in the card. "Back in a sec," she said, running up the stairs and out of sight once more. Alex took the opportunity and leapt from the chair.

"Doctor," he said, handing him the card. "Rory's gone, right? He was never born. He never even _existed_, right?"

"Right,"

"And Amy doesn't remember him?"

"No, Amy doesn't remember him. Why?"

"Well, if Rory was never born, and Amy doesn't remember him..." Alex trailed off, opening the card and thrusting it in the Doctor's face. "Then explain this."

_Dear Alex_

_I hope you have a fantastic birthday! 26? How are you 26? I'm only 21! _

Happy birthday!

_I love you with all my heart and I feel so lucky to be able to call myself your fiancé. I can't wait to go home and become the new Mrs Morgan._

_All my love,_

_Amy and Rory_

_xxx_

The Doctor chuckled slightly as he read through the card. Eventually he reached the end and frowned in confusion. "But... She wrote this after Rory was erased! How can see...?" the Doctor tailed off, utterly bemused.

"The Musée d'Orsay! Paris, south of the Seine!" Amy called happily as she jumped down the steps, a small guidebook in hand. The Doctor fumbled with the card and hurriedly stuffed it back into Alex's hands, dropping the Screwdriver in the process.

"Paris it is!" the Doctor cried, over-exaggerating his actions as he piloted the TARDIS towards their destination. Alex walked backwards slowly and sank into the chair, despairing at the impossible situation he found himself in.


	35. Vincent and the Doctor: One

_So, prepare to meet Vincent Van Gogh. The end of the line is in sight, and the big revelation... about why the Doctor took Amy with him, about the cracks, and about Alex... :) _

_Reviews would be marvellous :D_

Vincent and the Doctor – Part One

Amy bounded towards the door excitedly as soon as they landed and threw the door open. She squealed in excitement as she saw what lay outside. In contrast, Alex raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"So, you went to a planet in the 26th Century," Alex began as the Doctor brought up the rear and locked the TARDIS door. "Ancient Greece. And now you want to go to a museum in Paris... in 2010?"

"Yeah!" Amy cried. "I saw it online. The biggest Vincent Van Gogh exhibition ever! Come on," she seized Alex and the Doctor by a hand each and dragged them up the stone steps towards the main doors of the imposing, impressive building – the Musée d'Orsay.

As the Doctor gained their admittance – the psychic paper doubling up as a membership card – Amy dragged Alex to the nearby giftshop and brought a small book, in which every single one of Van Gogh's paintings were printed, with explanations and descriptions for each one.

"What's so great about this guy?" Alex asked, flicking through the book. "I mean, they're good paintings, but... why do you like him in particular?"

"This guy got me my A* in Art GCSE," Amy boasted, leaning in to Alex and forcing his arm around her waist. "I painted..." she flicked through the book and eventually reached a page titled '_The Church at Auvers'_ "that in my exam. Did a bit of research on him. He's the best painter who ever lived," she said sincerely.

Alex flicked through the book himself. _'Sunflowers'. 'The Town Hall at Auvers'. 'Wheatfield with Crows'. 'The Night Café'. _"Not a very imaginative bloke," Alex concluded.

"Right, come on, you two," the Doctor called, poking his head inside the shop and alerting them. They followed him outside and up some stairs, following the signs to the exhibit. After getting lost once or twice, they found their way to the right place, with a tour guide's voice reverberating around the room.

"... Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth and King Lear over the Summer Hols!" This was met with appreciative chuckles from the small crowd the man was talking to.

Alex glanced around and recognised numerous paintings he'd glanced at in Amy's little book. Amy herself looked like a little girl on Christmas morning, her head spinning, unsure where to look first. The Doctor smiled at her amazement. Both men were happy to see Amy so cheerful.

"... And especially astonishing because Van Gogh did it with no hope of praise, or reward," went on the tour guide.

"Thanks for bringing us," Amy beamed at the Doctor, flicking her red scarf out of her face.

"You're welcome."

"What d'you think Alex?" Amy asked, linking arms with him and steering him towards the nearest painting.

"It's a chair," Alex said blankly.

"And a brilliant chair at that," the Doctor said emphatically, interrupting. "Don't you agree Alex?" the Doctor asked, glaring at him.

Alex got the message. "Oh.. yeah! Yeah, brilliant chair. The colours and... shading. What a nice... chair."

Amy glanced at him. "You don't like art at all, do you?" she asked shrewdly.

"Not as such, no."

"Well thank you for trying to show an interest. You two are being so nice to me. Why are you being so nice to me?"

"We're always nice to you!" the Doctor protested.

"I think it's suspicious," Amy joked, lowering her voice and leaning her head in to theirs.

"What? It's nothing, there's nothing to be suspicious about," the Doctor reeled off hurriedly. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I was joking! Why aren't you?"

The tour guide began talking again. "Each of these pictures is now worth tens of millions of pounds, yet in his lifetime, he was a commercial disaster. He sold only one painting and that to the sister of a friend. We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died, you could've sold his entire body of work and got enough money to buy a sofa... and a couple of chairs." The crowd chuckled politely again. "If you follow me now..." the guide led his group over to the painting of the chair which was apparently titled _Van Gogh's Chair_.

"Look, there it is!" Amy cried, grasping Alex by the scruff of his neck and dragging him towards one of the paintings. She held her book up to it as Alex recovered and he noticed that it was _The Church at Auvers, _the painting that had gained Amy her A*. "The actual one!"

"Yes!" the Doctor whispered enthusiastically. "You can almost feel him painting it right in front of you. Carving the colours into shapes..."

Still Alex didn't understand the hype. It was a nice painting, certainly, but it was only a church.

"Wait a minute," the Doctor muttered.

"What?"

Well, just... look at that."

"What?" Amy repeated.

"Something very not good indeed."

"What thing very not good?"

"Look, there. In the window of the church."

Alex and Amy leaned in to look where the Doctor was pointing. Squinting, Alex could make out some odd black lines that seemed to form some kind of face, like a serpent, or a bird. Odd combination.

"Is that a face?" Amy murmured.

"Purposefully painted in," Alex noted.

"Yes. I've seen this painting before. That face isn't supposed to be in it. I know evil when I see it and I see it in that window." The Doctor strode away to where the tour guide and his group were crowded around one of the few paintings that Alex recognised – Sunflowers. He and Amy hurried after him. "'Scuse me, if I could just interrupt for one second. Sorry everyone," the Doctor said, flashing the psychic paper at the group at large. "Routine inspection. Ministry of Art and... Artiness." He turned to the tour guide. "So, um..."

"Doctor Black," Doctor Black told him.

"Yes, that's right. D'you actually know when that picture of the church was painted?"

Doctor Black's eyes visibly lit up. "Ah well. Ah, what an interesting question! Most people imagine-"

"I'm going to have to hurry you," the Doctor interrupted. "When was it?"

"Uh, exactly?"

"As exactly as you can, without a long speech if pos', I'm in a hurry."

Doctor Black frowned before delving back into his extensive knowledge of Van Gogh. "Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June."

"What year?"

"1890. Less than a year before he... before he killed himself."

The Doctor smiled and nodded, satisfied with the information. Alex and Amy exchanged glances. "Thank you sir. Very helpful indeed. Nice bow tie!" He turned to Alex and Amy who gave him blank looks. "Bow ties are cool!"

"Well, yours is very..." Doctor Black began.

"Oh, thank you! I mean, uh. Keep telling them stuff." He clapped Doctor Black on the shoulder and swivelled around, pushing Alex and Amy towards the exit. "We need to go."

"Fine with me," Alex smiled, willingly following the Doctor.

"What about the other pictures?" Amy protested.

"No! Art can wait! This is life and death!" the Doctor successfully overpowered Amy and pushed her in front of him. Alex took her hand in his and led her towards the exit. "We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh!"

V I N C E N T A N D T H E D O C T O R

The Doctor soon landed the TARDIS at their destination and he, Alex and Amy all piled outside. They found themselves in a dark alley in a quant, old-time-y village called Arles in Provence, a region of France.

"Right, so, here's the plan," the Doctor began, leading them up the alleyway. "We find Vincent, and he leads us straight to the church and our nasty friend."

"Easy peasy!"

"Well, no, I suspect nothing will be easy with Mr Van Gogh."

"Do you even know what the creature is?" Alex asked as they emerged from the alleyway and onto a cobbled road, dimly lit by street lanterns.

"Nope. Haven't the foggiest. Now, he'll probably be in the local café. Sort of... orange-y light. Chairs and tables outside."

Amy flicked through her small book until she found a painting showing what the Doctor had described. "Like this?" she asked.

"Or like that?" Alex asked from a few metres ahead. He had turned another corner and was met with exactly the scene the Doctor had described. He backtracked and glanced at the painting in Amy's book. The view was _exactly_ the same.

"Yes! Exactly like that!" the Doctor said happily as Amy chuckled incredulously. He approached a man in a smart suit who was clearing one of the tables outside of the cafe. "Good evening! Does the name Vincent Van Gogh ring a bell?"

The man snorted irately. "Don't mention that man to me," he said as he stalked back inside the café.

"'Scuse me," the Doctor apologised as the man disappeared. He turned to the maids who were cleaning tables nearby. "Do you know Vincent Van Gogh?" he asked them.

The maid sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, unfortunately!"

"_Un_fortunately?" Amy asked in disbelief.

"He's drunk, he's mad, and he never pays his bills!" the woman said nastily.

The Doctor shrugged. "Good painter though, eh?"

The two maids snorted and burst out laughing, one wiping a tear from her eye. Alex frowned. Even he, who knew next-to-nothing about art, could tell that the paintings were good. Amy looked genuinely offended. The Doctor sighed in defeat and sunk into a nearby chair. Amy took his hand and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Come on!" called a voice from inside the café. "One painting for one drink! That's not a bad deal!"

The irate waiter strolled back outside, holding a small rectangular object in his hands. He was followed by a tall, ginger man with a rough beard. "It wouldn't be a bad deal if the painting were any good!"

Amy squealed and jumped up and down on the spot slightly, squeezing Alex's hand. From behind the two men, the Doctor looked at them and grinned, pointing at the new arrival and mouthing "There he is!" Alex beamed and unconsciously squeezed Amy's hand back.

"I can't hang that up on my wall," The waiter went on. "It'd scare the customers half to death! It's bad enough having you here in person, let alone looming over the customers day and night in a stupid hat! You pay money, or you get out!" He slapped the painting into Vincent's chest.

"I'll pay, if y'like," the Doctor spoke up. Everyone went silent.

"What?"

"Well, if you like, I'll pay for the drink. Or, I'll pay for the painting and you can use the money to pay for the drink," the Doctor smiled cheerily at Vincent.

"And exactly who are you?"

"Oh, I'm... new in town."

Vincent rolled his eyes and smiled smugly. "Well in that case, you and your two pals don't know three things. One: I pay for my own drinks, thank you," - the listening waiter, maids and other patrons laughed – "Two: No-one ever buys any of my paintings or they would be laughed out of town. So if you want to stay in town, I suggest you keep your cash to yourself. And three: Your friend's cute. But you should keep your big nose out of other people's business." He turned back to the waiter who still had a smile etched on his face. "Now come on. One drink! I'll pay tomorrow!"

Amy nudged Alex, who looked down at her. She stared at him and smiled. Alex rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket, handing her the money within.

"No!" replied the waiter.

"Or, on the other hand, slightly more compassionately, yes?"

"Or, on the other hand, to protect my business from madmen, no!"

"Or..." Vincent pressed his painting into the man's chest again.

"Oh, look, just shut up!" Amy interrupted. "I would like a bottle of wine please, which I will them share with whomever I choose," she told the waiter, before smiling sympathetically at Vincent.

"That could work," he stuttered.

"Good by me,"

"Good!" Amy said, leading the waiter into the café, who stopped to slap the painting into Vincent's chest once more.

Vincent tucked the painting into a shoulder bag morosely and followed Amy and the waiter back inside. The Doctor, beaming from ear to ear, got up from the table and pursued them, with Alex bringing up the rear. The waiter supplied Amy with a bottle and the four of them sat down at a table near the corner of the room. There were few people in there and those that were seemed to be too deep in their drinks to notice the new arrivals.

"Cheers," Amy said, breaking the silence and holding up her glass of wine.

Alex, the Doctor and Vincent all rose their glasses in silence and drank. Alex winced slightly as the rank liquid slithered down his throat.

Vincent was the first to place his empty glass back onto the table and spoke up. "Vincent Van Gogh," he said, extending a hand across the table towards Amy.

"Amy Pond," Amy replied happily. She leapt at the opportunity and seized his hand, shaking it. Vincent leant forward and kissed it.

"That accent of yours," he said, placing her hand back on the table. "Are you from Holland like me?"

"No," replied Amy and Alex in unison.

"Yes," the Doctor corrected. "They mean yes."

Vincent shook his head slightly and turned to Alex. "Vincent Van Gogh," he said, reaching over towards him, hand outstretched.

"Alex Morgan," Alex replied warmly, shaking it. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Van Gogh."

"Please," Vincent replied, taking another swig. "Call me Vincent. And you sir. Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot."

"Yes, quite," the Doctor said happily. "Start again. Hello, I'm the Doctor."

"I knew it!" Vincent cried angrily, putting his head into his hands. "My brother's always sending doctors! But you won't be able to help."

The Doctor chuckled. "No, not that kind of doctor." His eyes caught the portrait Vincent had brought with him. "That! Incredible, don't you think, you two?"

"Absolutely," Amy said enthusiastically as Alex smiled at it, barely recognising it. "One of my favourites!"

"One of my favourite _whats_? You've never seen my work before!"

"Ah yes... one of my favourite paintings... that I've ever seen! Generally," she finished, sheepishly sipping at her drink.

"Nice save," Alex muttered, smirking. "Vincent. Could I see it more closely?"

"Of course," he replied, lifting it up and placing it onto the table. "But you can't have seen many paintings. I know it's terrible. But it's the best I can do."

"This is brilliant," Alex assured him, taking in the painting and noticing how well the colours had been blended and defined. "Stick men are about my limit. Vincent, this is really, honestly, good," he smiled kindly.

"Well, I thank you for your words. But you cannot know much about art if that is your opinion. Precious few people would agree with you, that's for sure."

"Right," the Doctor interrupted, getting down to business. "Vincent. Painted any churches recently? Or are there any churchy plans? Are churches, chapels, religious-y stuff like that something you'd like to get into? Y'know, fairly soon?"

Vincent thought for a moment or two. "Well there is one church I'm thinking of painting... when the weather is right."

"That is very good news," the Doctor said quietly, smiling.

Suddenly, a great scream went up from outside. A bedraggled woman rushed into the café, shouting out. "She's been murdered! Help me!"

"That, on the other hand, isn't quite such good news. Come on Amy, Alex, Vincent," the Doctor jumped from his chair and followed the distraught woman outside. They sprinted outside and down a nearby alleyway where they found the bloodied corpse of a young woman, no older than twenty. A small crowd had gathered around her, some of them crying and one person was throwing up in the background, evidently badly affected by the gore.

"She's been ripped to shreds!" cried out one member of the crowd.

"The Devil is upon us!" shouted another.

"Please, please, let me look! I'm a doctor!" the Doctor called as he arrived on the scene, barging through the crowd. He quickly took everything in. "Oh, no, no, no."

Amy crept her hand into Alex's as she looked down at the poor girl. They both grimaced as the Doctor and Vincent examined her.

"Move away you vultures!" screamed a new arrival, pushing her way through the crowd and leaning down at the girl's side. "This is my daughter!" She wept quietly, holding the girl's hand and shaking. "What monster could have done this? Get away from her!" she ordered, grabbing the Doctor's hands and pushing them away from the body.

"Okay, okay!" the Doctor moved away obediently.

The woman looked up at him and saw Vincent standing next to him. Her face descended into thunder. "Get that madman away from here!" she cried, taking up a nearby rock and launching it at Vincent.

The crowd followed suit and pelted the four of them with rocks and stones. The Doctor wordlessly grasped Amy and Alex by the hand and forced them back down the alleyway to safety, shielding them from the worst of the bombardment.

"You bring this on us!" the woman screamed as they fled. "Your madness! You! He's to blame!"

The four of them emerged from the alleyway and jogged away from it, eventually stopping to catch their breath when the mother's frenzied cries had faded away.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked Vincent breathlessly, who had taken the worst of the barrage.

"Yes," Vincent assured him. "Oh, I'm used to it. I'm just sorry I had to subject you three to it too."

"Has anything like this murder happened here before?"

"Yes. Only a week ago. It's a terrible time."

"As I thought," the Doctor said resignedly, strolling away. "As I thought. Come on, we'd better get you home."

"Where are you staying tonight?"

"Oh!" the Doctor said happily, clapping Vincent on the shoulder. "You're very kind!"

V I N C E N T A N D T H E D O C T O R

After about a ten-minute walk, spent largely in silence, Vincent led the group down a sheltered lane and out into a small courtyard surrounded by a few buildings. He led them up a path towards what seemed to be the main one. "It's not much," Vincent told them. "I live on my own. You should be okay for one night. _One_ night," he emphasized.

"We're gonna stay with him?" Amy muttered in disbelief, practically jumping on the spot.

"Until he paints that church."

"I'll set you up some beds," Vincent said, stepping inside. "Watch out. That one's wet," he pointed to a painting hanging on a hook.

Alex pulled the Doctor to the side as Amy stared at the painting, enthralled by it. "Okay. First night of engaged life. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"What?"

"Well I'm guessing we'll have to sleep in the same bed! I'll see her in her underwear and everything, and _vice versa_!"

"No! No, look at his house. Open windows. Well, _no_ windows. It's cold; you'll sleep in your clothes, you'll be fine."

"Yeah? What about tomorrow night?" He lowered his voice as Amy glanced over at them before entering the house. "And the night after? She'll want to do... _something_... eventually!"

"Then you'd better get used to the idea," the Doctor whispered back. "I'm sorry, Alex, I really am, but this is your life now." He walked away before Alex could reply, killing the conversation stone dead. Alex sighed and sloped away after him.

"Sorry about all the clutter," Vincent said as he lit a gas light, gesturing to a plethora of paintings stacked up around the room. "I've come to accept that the only person who's going to love my paintings is me."

"Wow," Amy murmured, looking at each painting in detail. "Really. _Wow_!"

"Yeah, I know! It's a mess. I'll have a proper clear-out. I must, I really must."

Alex copied the Doctor and Amy and strolled around the room, looking at the paintings in all their glory. Some he recognised, many he didn't. The paintings may have had unimaginative names, but the imagination that went into the pictures themselves more than made up for it.

"You know, you should be careful with these," the Doctor told Vincent from the next room. "They're... precious."

"Precious to me, not to anyone else," Vincent replied as Alex entered the room and took a seat at the nearby table.

"They're precious to me!" Amy poked her head around the doorframe.

"You're very kind. And kindness is most welcome." Vincent smiled at Amy in a manner that Alex recognised. Before he could interrupt and change the mood however, the Doctor did it for him.

"Right. So. This church, near here is it?"

"What is it with you and the church?" Vincent asked in exasperation, as he reached up to a high shelf, taking some wood for the fire.

"Oh... just casually interested in it, y'know?"

"Far from casual! It seems to me you never think of anything else! He's a strange one," he said, regarding Amy and Alex; the former had taken a seat on the latter's lap.

"Okay, so let's talk about you then. What are you interested in?"

"Well, look around!" he replied as he placed the wood in the fireplace. "Art! You know, it seems to me that there's so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see."

Alex pushed Amy off of his leg and joined Vincent and the Doctor, who were standing either side of a table.

"I believe," he went on. "That if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you can ever have dreamed of..."

Amy took Alex's hand and smiled at him lovingly. Alex smiled back, before catching himself and stopping. What was he doing? Amy frowned, looking somewhat hurt.

"You don't have to tell us," the Doctor whispered, breaking the awkwardness.

As the Doctor and Vincent proceeded to discuss things beyond Alex's comprehension, Amy strolled back outside to look at some more paintings. Thinking he'd have more chance of a coherent conversation with her, he followed. When he stepped out of the back door, Amy was already caught up in one of the paintings near the door.

Alex crept up behind her. "So what's this one then?" he whispered, leaning in.

"Oh!" she jumped. "This is The Bedroom at Arles," she said happily. "It's a painting of his bedroom... just in there. He painted it three times. I think this is the third." Amy turned and grinned at him, before leaning in for a peck on the lips. She then waltzed off to look at another painting, leaving Alex flustered. He soon caught himself and proceeded to follow Amy around the courtyard as she explained the various paintings, with occasional help from the book.

"Just gonna get a drink," Alex told her, feeling the dry roof of his mouth with his tongue. Amy acknowledged him, engrossed in another painting. However, without warning, before Alex could get halfway across the courtyard, Amy unleashed a terrible, ear-piercing screech. Alex spun on the spot and sprinted back to her. She was crouched down on the ground.

"Amy? You okay? What happened?" Alex asked, garbling his words in his hurry to get them out.

Vincent and the Doctor also came rushing out of the house. "Amy, are you alright? Amy?" the Doctor was shouting.

"I don't know, I didn't see," Amy murmured. "I was just having a look at some of the paintings out here and something hit me from behind." She staggered to her feet and pushed herself into Alex, who grudgingly, yet warmly, took her into his arms and rubbed her tenderly.

"It's okay. It's gone now; we're here."

Out of the blue, Vincent shouted out in fear, raising his hands to his head and adopting an expression of pure terror. He backed away from them, whimpering.

"Take it easy," the Doctor said to him calmingly, slowly approaching him. Vincent shouted out again. "Take it easy!"

"What's happening?" Amy called, tensing. "What's he doing?"

"I don't know!"

Vincent seized a pitchfork from a nearby bench and wielded it like a spear, pointing it directly at them.

"Oh dear," the Doctor said underwhelmingly.

"What the hell's he doing?" Alex asked the two of them, both of whom knew more about Van Gogh than he did.

Vincent charged at them with the pitchfork, shouting as if in battle. Alex pulled Amy out of the way as she screeched whilst the Doctor dove in the opposite direction.

"Run," Vincent ordered them, gesturing towards his house. "Run!"

"Yeah, yeah, not a bad idea!" the Doctor cried. "You two, get back. He's having some kind of fit! I'll try to calm him down

Alex ushered Amy inside the porch in front of Vincent's house and ventured back outside to assist the Doctor.

"Easy, Vincent. Easy!" the Doctor was saying as Vincent swung the pitchfork around again, a crazed look in his eye. "Look, it's me, it's me!" he said, holding his hands up. Vincent seemed to calm and stared at him. Alex approached Vincent slowly and reached for the pitchfork. "It's the Doctor, look. No-one else is here. So, just calm down-"

"Look out!"

Too late. An unseen force struck the Doctor from the side and sent him flying across the courtyard, landing in a hay bale. The tapestry Amy was hiding behind spontaneously ripped and an unearthly roar was unleashed from nothing. Deciding it best to get Amy properly inside, Alex turned and ran towards her. Before he had taken a few steps, he was struck square in the chest by the same invisible force He was sent flying backwards and crashed into the solid stone wall of Vincent's garden.


	36. Vincent and the Doctor: Two

_Another huge gap between updates! Sorry! I got a new part-time job recently, so that's cut my writing time pretty significantly. Plus, this is one heffa part, as I knew exactly where I wanted to end it as soon as I started it :) _

_Thanks in advance for any reviews you might give, and see you in the next part!_

Vincent and the Doctor – Part Two

"Are you okay? You there?" asked a familiar yet fuzzy voice. Alex slowly opened his eyes and Amy's face swam into view above him. Her face was a picture of worry and concern, but as soon as she saw his open eyes, she beamed and hugged him tight, half-strangling him.

"I'm fine," Alex laughed, sitting up. "I'm okay, honestly. Get off!" he smiled as Amy released him and landed a big kiss on him. A pain shot through his head and his hand sprang to the back of it. He winced as his fingers found the large bruise he had sustained from the collision.

"The Doctor checked it out. He said you'll be okay," Amy assured him, helping him to his feet. "It'll just be a bit painful."

"Where is he?" Alex asked, steadying himself with a table nearby.

Amy quickly filled Alex in with what he'd missed whilst unconscious. Vincent, being the only person able to see the creature, had drawn a sketch of the monster and the Doctor had taken it back to the TARDIS to try and identify it.

"That was a couple of hours ago. I was going to try and find him, if you're okay to walk?" she offered.

Alex didn't have to think for long. "Nah. I'll wait here," he grimaced, rubbing the back of his head.

"Are you gonna be okay? I'll stay if you want me to... I'm just sick of his _snoring_," she growled, rolling her eyes and nodding up the stairs to Vincent's bedroom. A low, harsh, rumbling sound was reverberating from behind the door.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Alex nodded. He winced and stopped quickly. "Find him, make sure he's okay." She hesitated, torn between her desire to hurry the Doctor up and her worry for Alex. "I'm fine, go!"

"Back as soon as I can," she smiled. She bent down and kissed the top of his head and frolicked from the room and down the garden path.

A few mintues passed. Tentatively, Alex rose to his feet and ambled around the room slowly. It wasn't exactly painless to do so, but it wasn't painful. Reasoning that he probably had a while until Amy and/or the Doctor returned, he began to wander the room, taking in each of the paintings hanging on the wall or stacked up on the floor, some in piles of ten or more. As he walked, he tripped on the leg of one of Vincent's chair. He stumbled, pain shooting through his head. He swore loudly, unable to control himself.

"Who's there?" came a weary voice from up the stairs.

"Sorry, Vincent," Alex called back. "It's me. It's Alex."

"Ah," the door at the top of the flight of stairs opened and a pair of feet appeared at the top. "You're awake then. That's good news,"

"Thank you," Alex smiled.

"You know, Amy was worried sick about you all night. Never left your side for a minute. Where is she?" he asked, glancing around and noticing her absence.

"She went to find the Doctor," Alex told him, groaning and sitting down on one of the chairs. "He's been gone for some time, apparently."

"Are you sure she wasn't just sick of me?" Vincent appeared to be joking, but Alex knew that he wasn't. And not only because of what he'd learnt of Vincent's insecurities.

"Tell me, Vincent..." Alex began, slowly. "What have doctors said about your..."

"My insanity?" he asked boldly.

"No!" Alex replied, shocked. "Well... yes, but I wasn't going to call it that."

"Oh, they've diagnosed me with a whole range of things; depression, schizophrenia, social anxiety, inferiority complexes... Lord only knows what half of those words even mean!" he laughed, but his mood changed rapidly. "But they're probably all right. All of them. My mind is so very ill, with no-one able to help."

"Listen... I, erm," Alex began.

"Hello-o!" called a familiar voice. "We're back! Vincent?"

"We're in the dining room," Vincent called.

The Doctor jogged down the stairs from Vincent's room and ushered them both up them. "Well come on then! Ah, Alex, back with us! Good." He clapped Alex on the shoulder as he passed.

They arrived at the top and the Doctor threw open the shutters of the bedroom. "Ah! What a morning!" he said happily as sun streamed in. "Breakfast is served in the courtyard! Amy's got a little surprise for you!"

The Doctor led Alex out of the door and down the exterior steps into the courtyard below. The bright sunlight lit it up well. Amy was sitting in the middle at a table, surrounded totally by sunflowers. Vincent looked down from above and smiled disbelievingly.

"I thought I'd brighten things up to thank you for saving us last night," Amy called up to him. She had spent the night well, pots of sunflowers dotted all around the courtyard wherever you looked, with one or two hens waddling in between them. "I thought you might like, y'know, possibly to perhaps paint them... or something? Might be a thought."

"Yes," Vincent considered, fingering the pot closest to him thoughtfully. "Well, they're not my favourite flower."

Alex looked up at Vincent on the balcony with an eyebrow raised. He shifted Amy along the seat and sat down himself. "_You_ don't like sunflowers?" she asked in disbelief.

"No. It's not that I don't like them; I find them complex. Always somewhere between living and dying. Half-human as they turn to the sun. A little disgusting! But you know... they are a challenge..."

The Doctor chuckled. "And one I'm pretty sure you'll rise to. But! Moving on. There's something I need to show you."

He beckoned for Alex and Amy to get up and follow him. He led the way as the four of them walked to Vincent's front room. Everyone but the Doctor took a seat, who paced the floor for a few seconds, before taking a small slip of paper out of his pocket.

"Now then, this creature. The creature no-one can see but you," the Doctor began as he handed Vincent the piece of paper. "Look familiar?"

Vincent looked at the picture intensely. "That's him!" he concluded. "The eyes... without mercy."

"This is a creature called the Krafayis," he explained, resuming his pacing. "They travel in space. They travel as a pack, scavenging across the universe. Sometimes one of them gets left behind and because they are a brutal race, the others never come back, so, dotted all around the universe are individual, utterly merciless, utterly _abandoned_ Krafayis. And what they do is, well, kill. Until they're killed. Which they usually aren't, because other creatures can't see them."

"But I can?" Vincent asked.

"Yes. And that's why we're in a unique position today, my friend. To end this reign of terror. So! Feel like painting the church today?"

Vincent looked taken-aback. "Well... what about the monster?"

"Take my word for it. If you paint it, he _will_ come."

Vincent grinned and got to his feet. "Okay. I'll get my things," he told them as he hurried from the room excitedly.

"In your own time. And then, I promise we'll be out of your hair by this time tomorrow," the Doctor replied, smiling.

Vincent stopped at the door and looked slowly back at the Doctor. He then continued on his way in a much less animated fashion. Alex watched him go, intrigued. He thought he recognised the look Vincent had just given.

When he had gone, the Doctor shook his head slowly and looked between Alex and Amy. "This is risky," he admitted.

"Riskier than normal?" Amy asked.

"Riskier than letting an invisible monster roam nineteenth century France?"

"Well think about it." The Doctor jumped to his feet and checked at the door to be sure Vincent had gone. "This is the middle of Vincent van Gogh's greatest year of painting. If we're not careful, the net result of our pleasant little trip will be the brutal murder of _the greatest artist who ever lived_! Half the pictures on the wall of the Musée d'Orsay will disappear... and it'll be our fault," he finished resignedly, settling down on a chair, head in hands. He shook it again and stood up. "I'll see what's taking him so long."

He left the room less up-beat than normal. That was becoming a trend, Alex mused. Amy pulled him down onto the chair she was on and nested her head on his shoulder, sighing deeply. They stayed sat cuddled up together in silence for a few minutes, until some muffled shouting brought them from their trances.

"Sounded like Vincent," Amy pondered. Alex agreed. They got up and went to investigate.

"Everything okay?" Alex asked as he and Amy arrived outside Vincent's bedroom. The Doctor was leaning on the balcony with a stony, defeated look on his face.

"We're leaving," he told the pair as quiet sobbing sounds came from behind the bedroom door. "Everyone knows he's a delicate man. Just months from now he'll... he'll take his own life. What are you doing?"

Alex had gone towards the door and reached for the handle. "Let me talk to him," Alex pleaded.

"I said we're going; he doesn't want us."

"He doesn't _understand_ us," Alex corrected. "But I think I understand him. Wait downstairs. We'll be there in a bit."

Amy smiled at him and pulled the Doctor away. Alex took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open.

"I told you to leave!" Vincent shouted as he entered. He was pitifully curled up in a ball on the bed. His hair was a mess and he spoke through great sobs.

"Vincent," Alex began timidly, slowly approaching the bed. "It's me. It's Alex."

"GO! Leave, run, just like everyone else!" he shouted, sitting up, more aggressive than pitiful now."

"I'm not going to run, Vincent!" Alex assured him, shaking his head. "I'm not going to run! I'm not going to run from someone I can help."

"No-one can help me! Least of all you!"

"No, Vincent, I can! I have experience with this, I can help-"

"NO-ONE HAS EXPERIENCE OF THIS BUT ME! Don't tell me you know what _this_ is like! Every day I am plagued by these thoughts! And they are made worse by people like YOU! Coming and going, never returning, leaving me with nothing more than an empty heart and a hopeless existence!"

"Okay," Alex agreed, deciding it was best to try and agree with him. "You're right. I don't know how _you_ feel. But I know how _I_ felt."

Vincent's face softened slightly. When he spoke, it was in a calmer tone. "How you felt when?"

Seeing that Vincent had calmed, Alex bent down to take a seat on the famed chair. He delved into his experience, not stopping for fear of Vincent firing up again.

"When I was younger... from when I was about fourteen, really, I had problems much the same as you do now. I was... terrified of being rejected by others. And when people came and went, it felt like the world crashing down around me. That no-one would ever like me. My parents sent me to three different schools... I never felt properly comfortable at any of them, no matter where I was, or who I was with. Even at home, I'd feel like some sort of invader, even when I was with people who I was meant to trust more than anyone. Maybe it was all in my head, maybe it wasn't. But you need to trust the Doctor. I don't feel like that anymore; I haven't for years. He helped me, without even knowing it. Maybe he can help you..."

As Alex had spoken, Vincent's expression had softened more and more. Whether becuase he had found comfort in Alex's words or simply because his incident was coming to an end, Alex wasn't sure.

"You don't need to do this alone," Alex told him, getting up. "We can help you. Listen, we'll stick around for a few more minutes and if you still want us to go, we'll go."

As Alex closed the door behind him and leant on the balcony edge, he thought he heard some bed-springs creak. Was he curling back up in a ball on the bed, or getting up from it? Alex didn't have long to wait to find out. Less than a minute later, the door to Vincent's bedroom opened and out stepped the man himself, wearing a long coat and his signature straw hat. "Let's go," he said sincerely.

V I N C E N T A N D T H E D O C T O R

Vincent seemed surprisingly upbeat, easel in hand, as they walked towards the Church in a neighbouring village. Alex had surprised himself in his willingness to open up to Vincent. He'd only ever told a handful of people. The Doctor didn't know. Did Amy? Had he told her in this new world in which they lived? Alex didn't have a clue how the mechanics of the new Rory-less world worked...

"I'm sorry you're so sad," Amy said to Vincent, their arms interlinked.

"But I'm not. Sometimes these moods torture me for weeks; for months. But I'm good now. If Amy Pond can soldier on, then so can Vincent van Gogh."

"I'm not soldiering on, I'm fine," Amy chuckled, glancing back at Alex, walking next to the Doctor, and beaming.

"Oh Amy. I hear the song of your sadness. You've lost someone, I think."

"I'm not sad," she assured him.

"Then why are you crying?" Vincent asked. Amy's hand slowly rose to her face and she wiped a few teardrops from her cheeks. Alex pretended not to hear and gazed determinedly out at the landscape beside the path as he felt Amy look back at him again. "It's alright; I understand."

"I'm not sure I do," Amy replied quietly.

"Okay!" the Doctor interrupted. He was getting good at doing that. "So, we must have a plan. When the creature at-"

"Then we shall fight him again!" Vincent said, stopping in his tracks and rounding on the Doctor almost aggresively.

"Well... yes. Tick. But last night, we were lucky. Amy could've been killed. A tiny bit harder and Alex probably would have been. So, this time, for a start, we have to make sure I can see him too."

"And how are we meant to do that, suddenly?"

The Doctor held up the leather attache-case in his hands and patted it. "The answer is in this box. I had an excellent, if smelly, godmother."

"And what _is_ in the box?" Alex asked shrewdly.

"A present. From an embarrassing, excellent, smelly godmother. Twice."

The Doctor resumed walking again. He hadn't got more than a few steps when he stopped again, his eyes locked on the precession coming towards them. Six men dressed in black suits were carrying a small, wooden coffin on their shoulders, walking slowly along the path, followed by a number of mourners.

"Oh no. It's that poor girl from the village..."

The four of them stood to the side of the path respectfully as the precession passed. The girl's mother shot a look of hatred at Vincent and the others; presumably, they were all hated by association.

"You do have a plan, don't you?" Amy asked the Doctor as they continued on to the church.

"No," the Doctor admitted. "It's a thing. It's like a plan but with more greyness."

"It's not too much further," Vincent told them a few minutes later. "It's about two hundred metres into those trees up ahead."

As the church gradually came into view through the branches, they could finally fully appreciate the beauty of it. Vincent's painting really was very good, now that Alex had a point of reference. Vincent set about preparing himself, placing his easel in the perfect position and sitting down in front of it, taking in the picture in front of him and breathing deep breaths.

"And, you'll be sure to tell me if you see any monsters?" the Doctor asked as Vincent prepared his paints.

"Yes! I may be mad... I'm not stupid."

"No... quite." He knelt down beside him. "And, to be honest... I'm not sure about mad either. It seems to me, depression is a-a very complex-"

"Shhh," Vincent interrupted him, holding up a finger and gesturing towards the church. "I'm working."

Alex meanwhile had been reassured by the Doctor's words, smiling comfortingly to himself, despite not having felt depressed for a few years.

"Well, yes," the Doctor replied to him sheepishly. "Paint. Do painting!"

Vincent set to work, beginning with the sky background. Amy watched on with interest. Alex attempted to, but soon got bored and took a seat leaning on a nearby rock.

"I remember watching Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel! Wow. What a whinger. I kept saying to him 'Look! If you're scared of heights, you shouldn't have taken the job mate'!"

Amy shushed him. Alex chuckled from his rock and settled back on it, preparing for the long-haul. After about half an hour of very little happening, an uncomfortable feeling arose in his lower stomach. He staggered to his feet and wandered towards the treeline.

"Where are you going?" Amy called over to him.

"When nature calls, you reply," Alex called over his shoulder.

"And Picasso! What a ghastly old goat."The Doctor's voice faded away as Alex wandered past the first of the trees.

He walked through the forest for a minute or two, before coming to a tree he deemed suitable. He unzipped his trousers and relieved himself. He glanced up through the trees at the sky. Night was drawing in. If he recalled correctly, the painting hanging on the wall back at the Musée d'Orsay had a night sky in the background. Surely that meant the Krafayis would be appearing soon? Alex finished up and stretched his arms, groaning.

_Crunch._

Alex spun on the spot, looking for the source of the noise. It hadn't been very loud, but loud enough in the silence of the woods.

"Anyone there?" Alex called out nervously. He picked up a fairly thick branch from the floor and held it aloft in readiness.

_Crash._

The undergrowth about twenty metres in front of him got blown apart as an invisible monster forced its way through it, charging. Fast, clumping footsteps told Alex all he needed to know and he fled for his life. He hadn't got far before realising that he'd never be able to outrun the Krafayis. He glanced back and, judging by the devastated bushes and low-hanging branches, it was gaining on him, fast. Alex skidded to a halt, turned and swung the branch in his hand as hard as he could.

Though it seemed to Alex's eyes as though the branch had come to a direct stop in mid air, the vibrations that travelled all the way up the stick and into his arms, coupled with the pained screech told Alex that he had made true and firm contact. Not waiting to find out if he'd stopped the creature, Alex turned and ran once more. As far as he could tell, the Krafayis wasn't following him.

He burst into the clearing that housed the church, surprising Amy and the Doctor, who were having a whispered conversation nearby.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked worriedly.

Alex took deep breaths. He leant on his branch and gestured over his shoulder. "It... chased me," was all he could manage between gasps for air. "Ran back as fast" – another gasp – "as I could."

"Oh my g-" Amy began.

"There!" Vincent called over. "He's at the window!"

They all turned to look at the church. "Where?" the Doctor asked.

"There. On the right."

"It beat me back?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"As I thought. I'm going in!" the Doctor announced, running towards the church.

"Well I'm coming too!" Vincent dropped his brush on the ground and made to follow the Doctor.

"No! You're Vincent... van Gogh. No."

"But you're not armed!"

"I am!"

"What with?"

He held up the attache case again. "Overconfidence, this, and a small screwdriver. I'm absolutely sorted. Just have to find the right prozactic setting and stun him with it – Sonic never fails." He turned to Alex and Amy. "Right then. Amy. One thought – one simple instruction. Don't follow me under any circumstances."

"I won't," she promised.

"Alex, I'm trusting you. Do _not_ let them follow me."

Alex saluted to show his understanding. The Doctor smiled at them and ran towards the door of the church.

"Will you follow him?" Vincent asked, sidling up to Amy.

"Of course!"

"I love you."

Alex turned to them, grinning, to be met with a confused look from Amy. "Nah, you won't follow him. I promised him I wouldn't let you follow him."

"Oh come _on_!"

"Ah! Let me finish. Fortunately, he neglected to tell _me_ not to follow him. So! Amy, Vincent, stay here, I'll be back with him before you know it."

"Hey! You..." Amy started.

"Yes dear?" Alex asked patronisingly, picking up the branch he'd used earlier. Amy rolled her eyes and turned her back.

Alex followed suit, rolling his eyes. He started to waltz towards the church, branch over his shoulder. "Just trying to keep you safe," he called to her. "Look after her, Vincent."

After taking a minute or two to locate a door to the church – the main door was locked – Alex pushed it open, the loud creaking filling the silent night. It was some sort of storage cupboard. He found a further door into the church (also unlocked) and walked down the corridor as quietly as he could. He came to a staircase and ascended, not really sure where he was going.

After another minute, he came to the conclusion that he was Doctor shouting out on the floor below told him that he probably shouldn't have climbed the stairs. He turned and ran back the way he had come, attempting to follow the Doctor's cry.

He arrived at the bottom of the staircase and located a new corridor, the direction he probably should have gone in the first place. He ran down it and came out into what he assumed was the main hall of the church. Familiar footsteps and snarling noises told him that the Krafayis was here, though he couldn't see the Doctor anywhere. He held the branch out directly in front of him and walked slowly forward, praying that he didn't walk into the invisible beast.

The branch met an undetectable object. Alex swore and backed up quickly. A roaring noise and a great rush of bad breath informed him that the Krafayis had felt him and was readying itself for an attack, beginning with the obligatory roar. A rush of air went past as the Krafayis swiped at him with a claw. Alex held out the branch in front of him again, trying to get an idea of how far away the creature was. Another swipe of a claw snapped the branch clean in two. Alex held the useless scrap of wood up for a moment or two, looking at it despairingly, before throwing it over his shoulder and walking backwards again.

The footsteps grew quieter as it apparently left him alone. Alex walked backwards to the wall and sidled along it, looking for where the Doctor could have conveivably disappeared to. The Krafayis roared again and a cracking noise sounded nearby. A great shrill – and familiar – scream erupted. Amy. Another scream.

"Amy!" Alex shouted out. Another scream. A stream of air as a claw rushed past his face. Alex fell over backwards as Amy screamed again.

"Hey! Are you looking for me sonny?" shouted a new voice. It was Vincent. Alex looked around the room to see him standing in the middle of the room, holding a chair. And looked almost directly at Alex. Evidently, he had been seconds away from being eaten, or worse. "Come on! Over here!" He watched the Krafayis pace around the room to face him head on. "Because I'm right here waiting for you!" Vincent ducked and grunted, swinging the chair at nothing. The Krafayis roared.

The Doctor and Amy emerged from the nearby confessions booth. Alex got to his feet as they joined him, looking at what was happening in front of them in wonder.

"Come on! Get behind me!" Vincent orderered. They obliged and ran forward as Vincent swung again with the stool.

The Doctor Soniced where Vincent was attacking. "Doing anything?"

"No," Vincent replied, shaking his head.

The four of them backed away towards another door, all looking round for clues as to the whereabouts of the Krafayis.

"Where is he?" the Doctor called to Vincent.

"Where do you think he is, you idiot? Use your head!" he responded, lunging again with the chair.

The Doctor soniced again. "Anything?"

"Nothing. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it!"

"Are you sure you've got the right setting?" Alex asked as the monster moved around the room.

"I think so-"

"Duck!" Vincent instructed as the Krafayis roared again. The Doctor did as he was told. "Left!" the Doctor jumped to the right to be smacked full-on by an invisible talon. "Right, sorry. My right, your left."

"This is no good at all," the Doctor decided, catching his breath on the floor. "Run like crazy and regroup!"

He got to his feet and ran towards the nearby door. The four of them piled through it and pushed against it, fighting the strength of the Krafayis. Eventually they overcame its power.

"Right. Okay. Here's the plan. Alex, Amy, Rory-"

"Who?" Amy interrupted.

"Sorry, erm-"

"Vincent," Alex corrected, digging his feet in as the Krafayis attempted to break the door down.

"What's the plan?"

"I don't know actually. My only definite plan is that in future, I'm definitely only using this Screwdriver for screwing in screws."

"Give me a second," Vincent told them, replacing his straw hat on his head. "I'll be back." He ran away from the group and disappeared.

"What are you even doing here?" Alex asked Amy breathlessly. "You were told not to follow us,"

"Actually, I was told not to follow the _Doctor_. You 'neglected to tell me' not to follow _you_,"

"Oh shut up you two. I suppose we could try talking to him," the Doctor reasoned.

"Talking to him?"

"I don't think he's much of a conversationalist," Alex braced himself as it smashed into the door again.

"It might be interesting to know his side of the story! Yes... although maybe he's not quite in the mood for conversation at this precise moment." A renewed onslaught against the door began, rattling its hinges. "Well, no harm trying! Listen," he called through the door. "Listen!" The banging stopped. "I know you can understand me, even though I know you won't understand _why_ you can understand me! I also know that no-one's talked to you for a pretty long stretch, but _please_. Listen." The ambient growling from the Krafayis slowly stopped. "I also don't belong on this planet. If you trust me, I'm sure we can come to some kind of... y'know... understanding. And then. Who knows?"

Silence from the other side of the door. Amy and Alex didn't dare say a thing. And for good reason. Seconds later, the window on the opposite side of the room exploded inwards and a great gust of air joined the shards of glass blowing into the room as well as a very large, very deadly Krafayis.

"Over here, mate!" Vincent called, running back into the room carrying his easel and holding it up in front of him, its pointed base aimed at the Krafayis.

"What's it up to now?" the Doctor asked Vincent, running to stand behind him.

"It's moving around the room. Feeling its way around."

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused.

Alex, Amy and Vincent had knelt down behind an alter of sorts. "Yeah, so maybe the middle of the room isn't the best place to stand," Alex whispered to the Doctor, harshly, who was still stood in the middle of the room.

"It's acting like it's trapped," Vincent went on. "Moving around the edges of the room."

"I can't see a thing," Amy moaned. "How do you know where to look?" she asked Alex who she realised was looking in the same direction as Vincent.

"Just look for the effects of its movements," Alex said absentmindedly. "The footprints in the dust, the nudging of the barrels. Doctor! Will you get down here?"

"I am stupid..." the Doctor muttered.

"Oh, get a grip!" Amy chastised him. "This is not a time to re-evaluate your self-esteem!"

"No, I really am, I'm stupid! And getting old... Why does it attack but never eat its victims? And why was it abandoned by its pack and left here to die?" The Doctor finally joined them behind the alter. "And why is it feeling its way helplessly around the walls of the room?" A hatstand was knocked to the floor as the Doctor spoke. "It can't see; it's blind. And that of course explains why it has such _perfect HEARING_!"

"Which unfortunately also explains why it is now turning round and heading straight for us!" Vincent cried. He ran out from their hiding place and held out the easel again, the razor-sharp spikes on the end of the stumps glinting in the moonlight.

"Vincent, what's it doing?"

"It's charging! Get back!"

"Yeah, not a bad idea!" the Doctor said, holding back Amy and Alex, all three of them bracing themselves. Less than a second later, an unearthly wailing filled the room. Vincent was lifted into the air and shook around as the howling intensified. Amy shrieked out in surprise. Vincent fell to the floor as the ends of the easel, seemingly floating in mid air, became darkened with what seemed to be the blood of the Krafayis. The wailing became pitiful, degenerating into almost silent weeping. It was horrible. The Doctor, Alex and Amy slowly approached.

"He wasn't without mercy at all," Vincent said, removing his hat and holding it at his waist respectfully. "He was without sight."

The Doctor and Alex both knelt down beside it. Alex placed his hands around the entry wound and pressed slightly, gauging its depth. As gently as he could, he pulled it from the Krafayis and dropped it.

"I didn't mean that to happen!" Vincent went on, tearfully. "I only meant to wound it. I never meant to..."

"He's trying to say something," the Doctor shushed them. He extended his hand and met the beast's head.

"What is it?"

"I'm having trouble making it out. I think he's saying..." The Doctor closed his eyes in concentration. "'I'm... I'm afraid. I'm afraid.' There, there. It's okay, it's okay," the Doctor whispered kindly, gently patting the head. "You're almost there..."

The lament came to a slow end as the Krafayis finally passed.

"He was frightened," Vincent said after a short silence. "And he lashed out. Like humans who lash out when they're frightened. Like the villagers who scream at me. Like the children who throw stones at me..."

Amy put an arm around Vincent, comforting him as Alex took a seat on a nearby stool, head in his hands.

"Y'know, sometimes winning... Winning is no fun at all."


	37. Vincent and the Doctor: Three

_Wow. Let's Kill Hitler was great! Already thought about where Alex might fit into it, and I even have some dialogue sorted in my head! :D_

_Important! Kind of. Looks like I'm going to have to retcon what River said in The Time of Angels about her and Alex's first meeting. Just, y'know, forget it! :P That's what you get when you try to do a _tiny_ bit of original writing concerning River bloody Song! ___

Vincent and the Doctor: Part Three

"What do we do about the Krafayis?" Alex asked as the four of them made their way from the church. "We can't just leave this great, hulking invisible thing in the middle of the church, even if it's dead."

"No! No, don't be silly," the Doctor berated him. "Evolution is a wonderful thing, don't forget that. Obviously, years ago, the Krafayis had that problem; even Krafayis can't see other Krafayis, only sense them. But they can't sense the dead ones, because they sense the consciousness, so they'd always be bumping into the dead ones; very annoying! So over the years, the Krafayis evolved so that when they die, their entire bodies decompose within minutes, they rejoin the soil. Evolution – best thing there is."

They finally emerged from the back door to the church. Night had well and truly fallen now. The moon was up and thousands of twinkling stars shone right across the blanket of the night sky, many light years away.

"Come," Vincent said to the other three. Alex noticed he had also been gazing at the stars. He was walking towards a patch of grass nearby. "Lie with me. Let me show you what I see." He laid himself down on the grass and looked up at the stars. Amy, Alex and the Doctor all joined him, forming a circle of four. "All of you join hands," he told them. "Try to see what I see."

Alex reached out for the Doctor and Amy's hands, finding them in the dark and holding on to them tight.

"We're so lucky to be alive to see this beautiful world," Vincent went on. "Look at the sky. It's not dark, and black, and without character. The black is, in fact, deep blue. And over there," he said more excitedly, pointing, "lighter blue. And blowing through the blueness and the blackness, the winds swirling through the air. And then shining, burning, bursting through, the stars! Can you see how they roar their light? Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes..."

"I've seen many things, my friend," the Doctor said quietly after a moment. "But you're right. Nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see."

Alex smiled, at last understanding the true majesty of the works of Vincent van Gogh.

V I N C E N T A N D T H E D O C T O R

"I only wish I had something of real value to give you!" Vincent exclaimed. It was the next morning. The four of them had trekked back to Vincent's house late the previous evening and collapsed into bed for a well-deserved rest.

The Doctor laughed in disbelief, holding up the painting Vincent had handed to him to compare it with the genuine article. It was a self-portrait of the man himself. "Oh no, no, I could never accept such an extraordinary gift," he said. Somewhat resentfully, he handed it back to Vincent, who shrugged.

"Very well. Well you're not the first to decline the offer!" He placed the painting back onto the table and turned to Amy, his arms outstretched. "Amy! The blessed! The wonderful!"

Amy hugged him tightly, kissing him on both cheeks warmly. "Oh, be good to yourself," she asked of him. "And be kind to yourself."

"I'll try my best."

"And maybe give the beard a little trim before you next kiss someone," she replied cheekily.

Vincent laughed. "I will. I will. And if you ever tire of this fiancée of yours, return, and we will have children by the dozen!" He turned to face Alex. "Alex, my friend. You have taught me wonderful things. Wonderful, helpful things."

They shook hands before leaning in for a hug. "Not a problem, my old friend," Alex assured him, smiling. "Always remember; you're not alone." He squeezed him once more and drew away, clapping him on the shoulder.

"And Doctor. We have fought monsters together and we have won! On my own I fear I may not do as well..."

The Doctor didn't reply. Instead, he simply pulled Vincent in and hugged him, disguising his sadness well.

"Well then," Vincent went on as they broke away. "I must get dressed. I have a half-finished painting left that I really want to complete today, I really do." He shook them all by the hand once more. "I hope to see you all again."

He turned and jogged up the stairs to his bedroom. They heard the door close behind him and with that, he was gone.

"I think he needs to work on his hosting skills," Alex mused as the three of them found themselves left alone in Vincent's front room. They ambled towards the front door. Amy snaked her hand into Alex's as they walked.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the Doctor asked them as they walked down the path in the courtyard.

"I was thinking I may need some food or something before we leave," Amy replied.

"I could murder a burger," Alex admitted.

"Or pizza,"

"Pizza would be good. I could do with a drink too, actually."

"Hm, I'm not that thirsty actually. Although, I could-"

"Okay," the Doctor interrupted them loudly. "You're not thinking _exactly_ what I'm thinking. Vincent!" he turned and called up at Vincent's open window. After a few seconds, he appeared at it, bare-chested. "Got something I'd like to show you. Maybe just... tidy yourself up a bit, first."

They in fact waited more than half an hour. When Vincent emerged into his front garden, he had donned his old straw hat, along with a shirt and suit. He also appeared to have had a small shave, though a fairly bulky beard remained on his face. When he was ready, the four of them embarked on the walk back into the village, talking as they did so.

"... Now," the Doctor said as they neared the TARDIS. "You know we've had quite a few chats about the possibility that there might be more to life than normal people imagine?" He groaned as they turned a corner and saw the TARDIS, covered in flyers concerning all manner of rubbish.

"Yes?" Vincent asked, confused.

"Well, brace yourself, Vinny..." The Doctor unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Frowning, Vincent strolled inside. He looked around, turned questioningly to the Doctor, Alex and Amy, and turned back again. He stuck his head out of the door and looked either side of the TARDIS. He walked all the way around the exterior. He examined it for another minute or two.

"How come _I'm_ the crazy one?" he asked when he'd finished, accepting the impossible box and stepping back inside. "And you three have stayed sane?" They all followed Vincent inside and walked up to the console level. He began to walk around the console, inspecting each of the controls with interest. "What do these things all do?"

"Oh, a huge variety of things. This one here, for instance, plays soothing music!" He pressed a button on the console and a whimsical tune began to play. They all danced around stupidly, giggling at Vincent's incredulous expression. "While this one here makes a huge amount of noise!" He pulled the start-up lever of the console, preparing it to dematerialise. "And this one here makes everything go absolutely tonto!" The TARDIS took off, shaking the room and knocking the four of them off balance. They all laughed as they were thrown around the room.

"And this one?" Vincent asked, reaching for one.

"That's a friction contrafibulator!" the Doctor cried, yanking Vincent's hands away from it in a panic.

"And this?" he pointed to a red button.

"That one's ketchup, and that one's mustard," the Doctor replied, gesturing to a yellow button.

"Hm, nice!" Vincent exclaimed. "Now, come on. Back to the café. And you can tell me all about the wonders of the universe!

"Good idea," the Doctor agreed, leading Vincent towards the door. "Although first, there's a little something I'd like to show you first." He held his hand up, clicked his fingers and pointed over his shoulder. Alex did as he was told and pulled the landing lever.

The four of them piled out of the door. Alex felt a moment of déjà vu as he looked up at the imposing, familiar building in front of him.

"Where are we?" Vincent asked.

"Paris, 2010 AD and _this_ is the mighty Musée d'Orsay, home to many of the greatest paintings in history."

"Well that's wonderful-ul..." Vincent frowned as a young man walked past with a radio, music blaring out of it.

"Ah, ignore that. We've got something more important to show you."

They walked back through the doors of the museum, the Doctor flashing the psychic paper at the woman on the desk as they passed. Amy led the way excitedly, skipping past the vast majority of paintings and sculptures in her rush to get to their destination. Alex and the Doctor regularly had to physically hurry Vincent up as he stopped to appreciate the works of other artists.

After a few minutes, they made it. The Doctor, Amy and Alex stopped and turned to Vincent and watched him. They had arrived at the Vincent van Gogh exhibition. Vincent looked around the circular room, his eyes slowly widening more and more as he recognised painting after painting, hanging on the wall in golden, ornate frames, with countless people admiring them, young and old. The Doctor spread his arms out as if to say "Well?"

"Doctor Black?" the Doctor asked the familiar curator as he walked past. "We met a few days ago. I asked you about the Church at Auvers."

Amy and Alex took an arm of Vincent's each and steered him near to Doctor Black, both smiling slightly.

"Oh, yes, glad to be of help. You were nice about my tie."

"Yes! And today is another cracker, if I may say so, but, I just wondered, between you and me, in a hundred words... where do you think van Gogh rates in the history of art?"

Doctor Black raised his eyebrows, surprised by the question. "Well... big question. But, to me, van Gogh is the finest painter of them all."

Vincent turned in disbelief, a tear dripping off the end of his nose. Alex patted him on the back and nodded at him, smiling comfortingly. He put a finger to his lips.

"Certainly the most popular great painter of all time," Doctor Black went on. "The most beloved. His command of colour, the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world... no-one had ever done it before. Perhaps no-one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist... but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

Alex and Amy had been so engrossed in Doctor Black's touching, poignant speech that they hadn't noticed Vincent practically break down. He was shaking as tears rolled down his cheeks, his eyes red and his face screwed up.

"Vincent!" the Doctor said, finally noticing and putting an arm around his shoulder. "I'm sorry, is it too much?"

"No," Vincent laughed though his sobs. "They are tears of joy! Thank you sir," Vincent said to Doctor Black, reaching up and kissing him on either cheek and hugging him. "Thank you!"

"You're... you're welcome," Doctor Black replied, utterly confused and taken aback by the sudden show of affection. "You're welcome,"

"Sorry about the beard," Vincent apologised as the Doctor hurriedly dragged him away, Alex and Amy in tow.

Tears continued to stream down Vincent's cheeks as they escorted him back to the entrance of the Musée d'Orsay. Once inside the TARDIS, Alex and Amy sat him down on one of the chairs so that he could compose himself while the Doctor piloted him home. When a _boom_ing sound signalled that they had landed, Vincent got to his feet. He was smiling.

"Home sweet home," the Doctor told him sadly. In contrast, Vincent virtually danced towards the door, picking up his hat from the hat stand on the way. He opened the door and stepped outside, back in the rural French landscape, not far from Vincent's home.

"This changes everything," he said cheerfully, strolling forwards. "I'll step out tomorrow with my easel on my back a different man. Though I can't believe one of the hay stacks was in the museum – how embarrassing!"

"It has been a great adventure and a great honour," the Doctor told him, shaking his hand vigorously before pulling him into a tight hug.

"You've turned out to be the first doctor _ever_, actually to make a difference to my life!" Vincent said gleefully, bouncing on the spot.

"Oh, I'm delighted. I won't ever forget you,"

Vincent turned to Alex. "And Alex, if I can overcome such problems with such magnificence, then I'm sure you can too," he said to him, shaking his hand too.

Alex widened his eyes and shook his head very slightly, shushing, telling him to shut up. He returned the handshake, before giving him a hug of his own. "The Doctor's right," Alex told him. "It's been such an honour. Thank you." He clapped him on the shoulder before standing back at the open TARDIS door as Amy and Vincent said goodbye.

"And you are sure marriage is out of the question?" Vincent asked her.

"For now," she laughed, throwing her arms around his neck. "I'm kind of engaged, remember." She kissed him on the cheek and stepped back. The three of them waved to Vincent one last time before closing the door. The Doctor set the TARDIS to dematerialise and they were off once more.

"What did he mean?" the Doctor asked Alex as they flew. "What problems?"

"Oh never mind that," Amy interrupted moodily before Alex could reply. "Let's just go back to the gallery."

The Doctor looking from Alex to Amy suspiciously before shrugging and pulling a lever. "Return trip it is, then."

Whatever had wound Amy up the wrong way, she soon forgot about it when the TARDIS landed back in Paris. She ran outside in an excited frenzy. "Time can be rewritten! I know it can. Come on! Ohh, the long life of Vincent van Gogh. There'll be hundreds of new paintings!"

"I'm not sure there will," the Doctor replied as Amy disappeared from sight in her rush to get to the exhibition. They had walked the path three times now, and so knew the way there well.

"Fixed and flux?" Alex enquired sadly. The Doctor's morose look was all the answer he needed.

"Come on," Amy insisted, dancing under the archway into the van Gogh area.

Alex and the Doctor caught up to her. They all glanced around, noticing no change. Doctor Black was touring yet another group of people around the room.

"We have here the last work of Vincent van Gogh, who committed suicide at only 37. He is now acknowledged to be one of the foremost artists of all time. If you follow me now..."

Amy teared up as Doctor Black's words got through to her. She sniffed as Alex pulled her into a comforting hug. She struggled a little but gave in and wrapped her arms around him.

"So you were right," she asked the Doctor as they broke apart. "No new paintings. We didn't make a difference at all."

"I wouldn't say that. The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things." He hugged her himself as she began to cry again. "Hey, the good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don't always spoil the good things or make them unimportant. And we _definitely_ added to his pile of good things. _And_, if you look carefully..." He took Amy and Alex's hands and pulled them over to where The Church at Auvers hung. "Maybe we did indeed make a couple of little changes..."

"No Krafayis," Amy said, noticing the absence of a face from the window of the church.

"No Krafayis," the Doctor confirmed.

"Y'see?" Alex asked, grasping Amy's hand in his. "There's proof of our visit right there. He didn't feel the need to paint in the Krafayis..."

"We made him happier for a small time, at least," the Doctor agreed. He began to examine the painting more closely. Amy slipped her hand from Alex's and strolled away. "Let her go," the Doctor muttered as Alex turned to follow. "Give her some time. Anyway, you never answered my question," the Doctor said, turning away from the painting. "What did Vincent mean?"

"Doesn't matter now, come on," Alex told him, looking past the Doctor and over his shoulder, to where Amy was walking towards. It was perhaps Vincent's most famous painting, Sunflowers.

As they neared the painting, both of them noticed another slight difference. There, in the middle of the plant pot, painted in Vincent's spidery handwriting – or whatever you called painted words – was a short message. "For Amy." The Doctor whistled in appreciation.

Amy noticed that they were stood either side of her. "If we had got married, our kids would've had very, _very_ red hair."

"The Ultimate Ginger," the Doctor smiled.

"The Ultimate Ginge," Amy corrected, amid chuckles from the Doctor and Alex. "Brighter than sunflowers..."


	38. Meanwhile: Seven

_YAY! A genuine character in the revived Doctor Who series called Alex! :D Blimey, Night Terrors is going to be a confusing episode to read, two characters called Alex and all._

_This part has been fairly hard to write actually, as the whole thing is just a conversation between Alex and the Doctor. It's also set a week or so after Vincent and the Doctor._

Meanwhile In The TARDIS: Seven

Alex ambled through the TARDIS corridors, feeling surprisingly happy considering what had just happened. Anyone in his situation would be feeling awful, depressed, perhaps even angry. But for Alex, it was more relief. He didn't have to worry about his conscience anymore. He turned a corner and strolled down the stairs into the darkened console room, taking a seat on the nearby chair.

"Alright?" the Doctor's voice asked amidst the darkness, scaring Alex half to death. Through the glass floor, the Sonic activated, causing the room to explode in a field of light.

Alex raised a hand, shielding his eyes from the harsh light. "What're you doing up?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same," the Doctor replied, climbing the stairs from below the console and pulling off his black goggles, placing them on the top of his head.

"I haven't slept yet," Alex admitted.

"Lover's tiff?" the Doctor asked, grinning cheekily. "I heard you," he admitted.

"Amy dumped me," Alex told him conversationally. "Well, we're on a break, whatever that means. Does anyone actually know what that means?"

"Well, the dictionary definition is when two people in a relationship decide to have some time apart, so that both parties can come to terms with their situation and try to work out an amicable solution for all involved," the Doctor reeled off. Alex glared at him. "But no. No-one really knows. Quite right."

"Well, that's apparently what we're doing."

"What happened?"

Alex rolled his eyes, attempting to cast his mind back. "She said I've been off for a few weeks now. That I've been avoiding contact with her and stuff. And she particularly didn't like that I didn't make any attempt to stop Vincent flirting with her, and him proposing to her and everything."

"Well, you were a bit distracted that day," the Doctor muttered, lying down on his back and looking at the underside of the console.

"Well, that's what I said. She just exploded even more," Alex replied, chuckling. "Anyway, I apologised, told her that I wasn't sure I was ready to get married."

"Ooh," the Doctor muttered disparagingly.

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "I know. Then she asked me why I proposed in the first place if I wasn't ready. And..."

"And what?" the Doctor asked, rolling out from under the console and jogging back down the stairs to the under-level of the console.

"I'm sorry. I told her that I didn't. Propose, that is."

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked up at Alex through the floor. The look on his face was one of worry tinged with irritation. "And what did she do?" he asked tentatively.

"Told me to shut up and stormed off back to her old bedroom."

"This is bad. This is very bad. She's going to question it now. She'll realise that you didn't ever propose to her,"

"Doctor,"

"Her whole world will fall apart!"

"Doctor,"

"Well, maybe if you actually _do_ propose..."

"Doctor!"

"But no, that's not fair on you. Ohh, Alex, I don't know where to go from here. What do we do?"

"Doctor!" Alex all but shouted. When he opened his mouth again, however, his voice was calm. "Is there absolutely no way Rory can come back?"

"Absolutely no way."

"But... did you ever see him go into the crack? Are you sure he was actually... 'eaten'... by it?"

"Look, even if he wasn't taken into the Time Field – which he was, clearly, because Amy doesn't remember him – he was dead. Restac killed him, he died and _then_ got absorbed by the Time Field."

"But, it's like..." Alex began talking, but tailed off, thinking.

"What?" the Doctor prompted.

"Well, she knows something's wrong. I mean, it's been, what, two weeks since he's been gone?"

"About that?"

"Well sometimes, when she thinks I'm asleep, I hear her crying. Literally, weeping into her pillow, until it's wet. And when I ask her what's wrong, she tells me she doesn't know. She wondered at one point if she'd caught some sort of airborne depression from Vincent, for Christ's sake."

The Doctor chuckled, apparently not understanding the severity of the situation.

"And then there're those times when we're here. In flight. She just sits in her chair, staring into space. Doesn't respond when she's spoken to or anything... Look. Remember when we first met Amy. Back with Prisoner Zero and everything?"

"Mmm," the Doctor murmured, packing his goggles back into the rickety cabinet beneath the console level and walking back up the stairs.

"I spoke to that Mrs Angelo. She told me about when Amy was growing up. How Rory was her rock, basically, her only really true friend."

"Even I've got more friends than that," the Doctor grinned.

"Doctor," Alex reprimanded. His straightened his face immediately and motioned for Alex to carry on. "She told me how they were the best of friends. Running around the village green together, pretending to fight aliens and everything. And she went on about a time when Amy was banned from seeing Rory. She said, 'Amy was lost without him.' Those were her exact words." He sighed. "I can see what she meant now."

The Doctor put a hand on either of Alex's shoulders. "Look. Rory's gone. We're the only two people in the universe with any memory of him. We mourn him, but we live. Amy might be sad. But she hasn't got a clue why. You said so yourself."

"But how can she have lost all those memories?" Alex asked, finally voicing the thoughts that had plagued him for weeks.

"She hasn't. They've been... altered. She still remembers running around the village green, fighting aliens. She just remembers doing it with someone else, or on her own. That's what happens when someone's erased from the universe. What they did with their life still happened... it's just the...journey there that's changed, in person's memory at least. Amy still played on that village green, but with someone else. And in the same way, Amy was still proposed to, but by someone else."

Alex sighed. He frowned as the Doctor flourished the Sonic and aimed it at the console, making one final adjustment to it. "What've you been doing anyway?"

"Amy wants to go to a certain planet tomorrow," he explained. "Sinda Callista and its moons have a... sort of, timey... fieldy... thing. Anyway, the TARDIS wouldn't like it there, so I've had to lower shield density. It's fine now. So! Bed!"

"Where's _your_ bedroom?" Alex asked as the Doctor pushed him towards the stairs to the maze of corridors, of which his bedroom was the prize.

"Goodnight, Alexander!" the Doctor replied. Alex smiled and, shaking his head, walked towards his old single-bed bedroom.


	39. The Lodger: One

_Okay, second part in a row saying this, but THIS was the hardest part to write so far! I first watched the episode and wrote in those bits that I could take from it, then went back and inserted all the little extra bits. Brand new way of doing it! That's why I delayed the update and wrote the whole episode as one though. I've got one more little section of the second part to write – should be with you in the next couple of days!_

_And yes, shorter part! I know!_

The Lodger – Part One

"Right!" the Doctor cried. "Landed. Although why you want to go to the _moons_ of Sinda Callista before the _planet itself_ is beyond me."

"Like an introduction," Amy chuckled, glancing at Alex and smiling. She had been perfectly friendly since their disagreement the previous night. If Alex didn't know better, he'd be inclined to think that she was being overly so. "Anyway, you said Sinda Callista's got all this weird... time-y stuff. So going to the moons first is sort of a... test run. Easing us in. Right?" she asked Alex.

Alex jumped. "Oh. Yeah. Absolutely," he stammered, automatically agreeing with her.

"Fine, whatever. Test run it is."

"Which moon is this?" Amy asked.

"Fifth. Now, you two. Stay here. Need to check outside before you two can come out. You never know what you're going to meet on Sinda Callista. Once, I saw a four-eyed snail, wearing a miniature crash helmet on each eye." He walked from the console towards the door, rambling as ever. He opened it and stopped. Light birdsong and early-morning sunlight streamed inside. "No. This is definitely not the fifth moon of Sinda Callista. I think I can see a _Ryman's_..."

_Boom_

The console exploded, sparks raining down on them. The monitor swung dangerously from the ceiling as the time rotor started up again, sounding pained, almost wounded. Alex and Amy were both thrown to the ground, and continued to be thrown around the glass floor. Alex grasped one of the rails nearby and heaved himself to his feet, trying and failing to ascertain the cause of the havoc. Amy had also pulled herself to her feet and was inspecting the monitor.

"Doctor!" she shouted. "It's saying we're on Earth! Essex, Colchester!" Almost as soon as she had finished speaking, the cacophony lessened and stopped completely.

"Well," Alex sighed, rubbing his face and ruffling his hair. "That woke me up."

"Doctor?" Amy called again. "Is it taking off again?" she asked Alex in disbelief.

Alex walked to the console and examined it. The spinning things were spinning and the lightey things were lit. The time rotor was ascending the descending the column in the centre and the TARDIS' signature noise was sounding throughout the room. "Yeah," Alex confirmed.

"But the Doctor went out of the door," Amy said, panicking. She approached the door and put her hand on the handle.

"Do _not_ open that door!" Alex ordered, equally panicked.

"Why not?"

A voice reverberated throughout the TARDIS before Alex could reply. "Alex? Amy? Can you hear me?"

"Doctor?" they both cried in unison.

"If you can hear me, talk into the radio on the console. It's near the big gramophone," the Doctor told them. They both scoured the console and eventually found the small black radio that wouldn't have looked out of place in a World War Two aircraft.

"Got it. Doctor?" Alex said into the radio, holding it between him and Amy so they could both talk into it.

"Ah good, I found you. I was worried I'd have tapped into another commercial airline. Three different people asked me for permission to land."

"Doctor, what's happened?" Amy interrupted.

"Well that's the thing. I don't really know. There's some sort of time disturbance here, stopping the TARDIS landing. I've tracked it down, but I really don't know what it is."

"Where is it?" Alex asked.

"Upstairs floor of a building, I think. I'm going to have to infiltrate it and find out what's upstairs."

Alex frowned. "Riiight. Infiltrate. What is it, like a bank, or government building?"

"No. It's a house in Colchester. 79 Aickman Road. Very nice."

Alex and Amy glanced at each other. Amy rolled her eyes.

"I've managed to track you two down too though. I folded back the signal from console to Sonic and replicated it in a refold-back loop of 36.2 to create a metro-feedback receptacle transmitting on scramble setting four. A handy little earpiece. Should be able to keep in contact with you fairly regularly."

At that moment, the communication cut out.

"Great," Amy said irritably. "Now what?"

"Well..." Alex mused, thinking. "The controls haven't been changed since we landed so... if I pull this," he said, reaching for the landing lever, "maybe we'll land."

"Do you really think that'll work?" Amy asked.

"No," Alex replied truthfully. He pulled it down and the time rotor began to move with more gusto. A booming sound told them that they'd landed.

"You did it!" Amy cried disbelievingly. Alex laughed in surprise but was thrown to the ground mid-chuckle as the console exploded in sparks again and shook violently. A few seconds later, the chaos subsided. They both picked themselves up again. Amy reached for the lever and pulled it again before Alex could stop her.

"Déjá vu," Alex cried as he hung onto the railing for dear life.

"Oh, why won't you land?" Amy shouted at the console. "You know about this thing," Amy said to Alex when things had calmed down. "Better than me anyway. Don't you have any ideas?"

"Well the Doctor said it was a time disturbance, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, last night, the Doctor lowered the shield density of the TARDIS because of some... well, he called it a timey-fieldey thing on Sinda Callista. If I had to guess, that's why it's affecting us so badly. Lowered shield density."

Amy's eyes visibly glazed over. "Do you know how to fix that?" she asked.

"Not... the... foggiest," Alex admitted. "Where's the manual?"

"He threw it in a supernova, remember?"

Alex groaned at the Doctor's pigheadedness. "Okay, well... that was before the TARDIS got redecorated. Maybe there's a new one for this model."

"You really think so?"

"No. But it's something to do. C'mon."

T H E L O D G E R

"We could be here hours," Amy moaned from the level below as Alex strolled along the upper level of the library, scanning the titles of the many books, many of which were written in strange, undecipherable languages. Every now and then he stopped, having seen a book title in English, but it was of no help. He also found himself drawn to the books with Gallifreyan text on them. He knew he'd never be able to read them, but nevertheless, he stopped once or twice and took one of them out. It was soon replaced on the bookshelf after a quick flick-through. No help there.

"Hey, Alex," Amy called from the level below. "C'mere." Alex placed _The Three Little Sontarans_ back on the shelf and did as he was told and descended the nearby staircase. "Look at this," Amy said to him as he approached. She held out a scrap of paper. It was the end of a hand-written letter, torn from the main body of text. "Who the hell is that?"

"_ry Doctor, nobody blames you. It was the best thing to do. For the sake of the Universe._

_All my love,_

_xxx_

_PS. I hope this gets to you. I've never sent a letter through time _and_ space before."_

Alex's expression became more and more confused the more he read the note. "No idea," he said eventually, finishing it, thinking that the handwriting seemed vaguely familiar. "Someone who knew the Doctor enough to give him 'all my love' though."

Amy _aww_ed patronisingly, taking the note back. "Should we ask him?"

"He's nine-hundred years old, he probably doesn't remember himself. Where did you find it?"

Amy handed him a book. "It was sticking out the top of this,"

Alex looked at the hardback front cover. "Encyclopaedia of Genealogy: Trace your family back generations with the help if this definitive guide," he read, chuckling. "Why would the Doctor need to trace anyone's family tree?"

"He probably does it literally. Goes back in time and meets them," Amy laughed.

"Could be fun," Alex muttered, thinking fondly of his mother, his father, his grandmother, and God knows how many deceased generations before them...

T H E L O D G E R

As they arrived back in the control room empty-handed, a familiar voice met their ears. "Earth to TARDIS, Earth to TARDIS. Come in, TARDIS."

Amy ran to the console and picked up the communicator. "Doctor!" she called into it loudly, happily.

"Could you not wreck my near earpiece Pond?" the Doctor asked in annoyance, grunting.

"Sorry," she replied sheepishly.

Alex took the communicator off of her. "So how's the infiltration going?"

"House infiltrated," the Doctor said proudly. "I'm renting a room from a man called Craig. I've got my own keys!" he said, jangling them in the background.

Alex chuckled. "That was quick. We only spoke to you, what, an hour ago?"

"Ah, yes, well. You're in a state of temporal instability while being affected by the disturbance. Time isn't going to pass in the same way for both of us. Five minutes for you could be two weeks for me."

Amy frowned. "But does that mean that five minutes for you could be two weeks for us?"

"Yes, Amelia, it does. But don't worry. I'm working on it. How's the TARDIS coping?"

"See for yourself." They held the communicator up so that the Doctor could fully appreciate the chaotic, almost untidy noises the console was emitting. It didn't sound very promising.

"Ooh. Nasty," the Doctor said worriedly. "She's locked in a materialisation loop. Trying to land again, but she can't."

"And whatever's stopping her is upstairs in that flat?"

"Yep."

"So go upstairs and sort it!"

"I can't. I don't know what it is yet. Anything that can stop the TARDIS landing is big... scary big..."

"Are you scared?" Amy asked after a moment's silence.

"I'm not scared Pond, I'm apprehensive. Could be anything up there, all big and scary and powerful. A whole pack of lions, fourth legion of the Dynomakers, a Time Lab, a Starbucks, a tarantula on a table... I can't go up there 'til I know what it is and how to deal with it. And it is vital that this 'man' upstairs doesn't realise who and what I am. So no Sonicing. No advanced technology. I can only use this 'cos we're on scramble. To anyone else hearing this conversation, we're talking absolute gibberish... practical eruption in chicken, Descartes Lombardy spiral."

Amy and Alex exchanged glances. "Doctor..." Alex began. "You okay?"

"Fine. So, all I have to do is pass as an ordinary human being. Simple. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Have you seen you?"

"So you're just gonna be snide. No helpful hints?"

"Hm, well, here's one. Bow tie: get rid!"

"Bow ties are cool." Amy put her hand to her face in despair. "Come on Alex, you're a normal bloke, tell me what normal blokes do."

"I haven't been a normal bloke for about three years," Alex reminded him. "I don't know, they..." he shrugged, struggling to think.

"They watch telly, they play football, they go down the pub," Amy helped out.

"I could do those things. I don't, but I could. Hang on, wait, wait, wait. You two okay?"

As the Doctor spoke, the TARDIS shuddered and juddered, throwing the pair of them to and fro. They may as well get down on the floor themselves, Alex thought, and save the TARDIS a job.

"Interesting," the Doctor said calmly, utterly juxtaposed to the situation in the TARDIS. "Localised time loop."

"What's all that?" Amy cried amid shrieks.

"Time distortion. Whatever's happening upstairs is still affecting you..."

The shaking – and Amy's screaming – reached a climax before settling back to normal. Alex reached unsteadily for the communicator. "We're okay," he told the Doctor. "It's stopped."

"Ish," Amy corrected. "How about your end?"

"My end's good."

"So... doesn't sound great but... nothing to worry about... right?"

"No. No, no. Not really. Just keep the zigzag plotter on full, that'll protect you."

Alex reached for the zigzag plotter and plotted. The grating sound from the console subsided and reverted to semi-normality.

"Now then. I must not use the Sonic. I've got work to do. Need to pick up a few items."

"Hey!" Amy tried. Too late; the Doctor was gone. "Great. Now what?" she asked, stifling a yawn.

"Looks like bed for you," Alex laughed.

"We can't sleep though, what if he needs us?"

Alex thought for a moment. "There must be camp beds somewhere around here somewhere," he reasoned, scouring his memory for where he might have seen some. "We could sleep in here,"

Amy strode from the room. "Better start looking then!"

T H E L O D G E R

Considering the sheer size and expanse of the TARDIS and its many rooms, Alex was surprised when they stumbled across a couple of camp beds, mere minutes after their search began.

"When d'you reckon these were last used?" Amy asked as they dragged them through the endless corridors, back towards the console room.

"God knows," Alex smiled. "Why would you need a camp bed when you've got the TARDIS? Must be a hundred bedrooms in this place,"

"Couldn't we patch the communication with the Doctor through to one of the bedrooms? This doesn't look very comfy."

"Yeah, sure. If you want to crack right on with that as soon as we get back, that'd be great, because I, personally, haven't got a clue how."

"Alright!" Amy replied defensively, heaving the folded-up bed down the stairs and into the control room. "Now. How the hell do these things work?" Alex swiftly set up both camp beds and stood back to admire his work. Amy whistled in appreciation. "Impressive,"

"Me and my parents went on loads of camping trips when I was younger," Alex shrugged.

"Never knew that..." Amy murmured. "Right! I'm going to bed. See you in the morning!"

Amy put her arms around Alex and hugged him tight. He returned the gesture and turned to his own camp bed. Amy was right. It didn't look particularly comfortable. And if the TARDIS went bonkers again, they'd both probably find themselves lying on the cold, hard, glass floor...

"Morning!" Amy called, causing Alex to jolt awake and nearly fall out of the rickety camp bed. He stretched and looked up at Amy stood beside him. She was carrying two mugs in her hands. She smiled and handed one to Alex. "Just the way you like it,"

Alex sipped the tea and found that it was indeed the way he liked it. "Thank you," he said graciously and yet yawning at the same time.

"What were you doing with this?" Amy asked, picking up the scrap of paper they'd found in the library the previous night. It had been discarded on the floor next to Alex's bed.

Alex frowned, not immediately responding. "I don't know what it is. I just feel sure I recognise the handwriting from somewhere..."

Before either of them could muse on this any further, the Doctor's voice emerged from the gramophone, filling the room.

"Alex? Amy? Can you hear me?"

"Doctor! Amy cried happily.

"What've you got then?" Alex asked as he climbed out of the bed, skipping the niceties altogether. He had been unable to sleep straight away the previous night, so had done some tinkering with the gramophone and radio. He'd managed to make it so the communicator picked up voices from anywhere in the console room, a little like putting a phone to speaker phone. Amazing what you could do when you're bored brainless, Alex had thought as he'd done it. If he'd really thought about it, he probably could have patched the sound through to a bedroom, as Amy had suggested.

"Everything I need to make a scanner to find out what's up there. Shouldn't be too difficult to make. I made a fully-functional toaster when I was about a hundred and twenty out of a bath towel, a torch and a wind-chime."

"What happened to 'no advanced technology'?"

"This is non-technological technology of Lammasteen. Undetectable. Can't put it together now though, Craig's invited me to play football. His team's missing a player. So, I'm going out. If I hang around the house all the time, him upstairs might get suspicious, notice me."

"Football. Okay, well done, that is normal," Amy said, playing around with a magnifying glass.

"_You're_ going to play football," Alex laughed.

"Again, you're just going to be snide? No helpful hints?"

Alex thought for a moment or two. "Yeah, here's one. Kick the ball in _their_ goal, not yours."

"Kick?" the Doctor asked. "I thought football was the one with the sticks?"

"Tell you what," Alex said, deciding it best not to attempt to explain the entire game of football in short. "Go and play, see how you do. And try and film some of it," he added as an afterthought, grinning.

Agreeing, the Doctor cheerfully left, switching off his earpiece. TARDIS-time, it was only a few minutes before everything went to pot. Alex and Amy both seized the bar beneath the monitor to steady themselves as they were thrown around the room once more.

"Alex? Amy?" the Doctor reappeared on the loudspeaker, sounding breathless.

"It's happening again. Worse," Amy replied, surprisingly calmly. She wasn't wrong. The sounds being made by the console were terrible, like nothing Alex had ever heard. And he was getting a horribly familiar feeling in his lower stomach, a feeling that reminded him of a particularly choppy boat-ride he'd been on when he was eleven.

"What does the scanner say?" the Doctor asked, equally relaxed.

"Uh, a lot of nines... is it good that they're nines? Tell me it's good that they're all nines." There was, Alex noticed, a hint of panic in Amy's voice, though well-hidden.

The Doctor did not immediately reply. "Yes, uh, yes. It's good. Zigzag plotter, zigzag plotter,"

Alex reached for it and plotted. Nothing happened. He grew irritated and plotted more aggressively. "It's not doing anything!" he cried. They both shouted out as the shaking hit a new high, and they both hit the floor with their backsides. Alex reached up and attempted to zigzag plot again. Eventually, things calmed down.

"Are you there?" came the Doctor's worried question.

"Just about," Alex replied breathlessly, legs shaking.

"Hello!" Amy added in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice.

"Oh. Thank heavens. I thought for a moment the TARDIS had been flung off into the Vortex with you two inside it. Lost forever."

Alex and Amy exchanged glances, eyes worried, eyebrows raised. "_Please_ tell me you're joking," Alex begged.

"You have _got_ to get us out of here."

The Doctor disregarded their worry without a thought. "How're the numbers?"

"All fives," Amy told him.

"Fives? Even better. Still, it means the effect's unbelievably powerful and dangerous. But don't worry. Hang on, okay?"

"Hey!" Amy cried.

"Doctor, you _can't_ leave us like this," Alex told him. "Just... give us something."

"I've got some re-wiring to do. Just hold on. I'll get back to you."

Alex hung his head in despair as the line went dead again.


	40. The Lodger: Two

_Rule One: The Doctor lies._

_Rule Two: I lie – "__I've got one more little section of the second part to write – should be with you in the next couple of days!_

_Well that was a porker, wasn't it? Here we are, twelve days later. No excuses this time. I just couldn't think of anything to write for this first scene. In the end, I gave up and threw something small together. I didn't really put loads of effort into this episode as a whole anyway :p On the plus, I've started the next Meanwhile already, as well as a couple of scenes from The Wedding of River Song!_

The Lodger – Part Two

Alex stroked the piece of paper with the tip of his finger. He touched the words 'all my love' softly, trying to work out just whose love it was. He knew he had seen the writing before. Questions swum around his head, all fighting to be mused over first. What had the Doctor done that would prompt this stranger to assure him that nobody blamed him? Why was it for the sake of the universe? Just how exactly does one send a letter through time and space? Why had someone – presumably the Doctor – torn the bottom of the letter away from the rest of it? Why was it sticking out of a book about genealogy of all things?

Alex got up from his chair and walked towards the console, steadying himself as the TARDIS juddered again. He pressed a few buttons on the typewriter and pulled out a slot on the underside of the console, placing the scrap of paper inside.

"Want a drink?" Amy called from the corridor to the kitchen. Alex hastily stuffed the slot back into the console.

"No, no... I'm good. Thanks..." he stuttered, wondering if she'd noticed anything. After a moment or two, her footsteps faded away and Alex could continue with his work. He pressed one more button on the typewriter and began the scan.

After a moment or two, the scan was complete. Alex scrolled through the block of text on the monitor, skipping the majority of it. It was mainly about the composition of the paper and ink, but still he read, hoping to find out where and when it had been written or even – perhaps this was asking too much – who had written it.

Or, just maybe, it wasn't asking too much. '_Writing style recognised' _Alex read, growing more excited as he did so. '_Previous TARDIS inhabitant_. _Ascertain author_?'

Alex smiled broadly, selecting '_Yes'._

"Oh where is he?" Amy moaned, walking into the console room, causing Alex to jump again. Alex shrugged, watching the small, computerised hour-glass turn on screen as the system tracked down the author of the letter.

"What're you doing?" Amy asked suspiciously, walking round to look at the screen. Acting without thinking, Alex switched the monitor off before she arrived.

"Nothing," he replied unconvincingly. Amy didn't believe him, Alex could tell. Her eyes had narrowed and she was pouting just slightly. She reached over and switched the monitor back on. The screen was blank, swirling Gallifreyan text decorating an empty background. "See?" Alex smiled.

Amy frowned and turned to walk towards the nearby chair. Alex seized the opportunity to slide open the slot and retrieve the letter. It squeaked as he closed it. Amy whirled around. "What was _that_?"

"What was what, Amy?" Alex chuckled, surreptitiously stuffing the piece of paper into his back pocket and leaning on the console casually. Amy continued to stare. Alex didn't break the connection.

"Right, okay. You two there?" the Doctor's voice filled the room, interrupting their staring contest.

"Yep," Alex called. Amy didn't reply, still gazing at him suspiciously. Eventually, she broke her stare and looked towards the gramophone. Alex followed suit.

"Good. Scanner's done! Shield's up. Let's scan."

Alex and Amy looked at each other, neither wanting to hope too much. "What're you getting?" she asked hesitantly.

"Upstairs... no traces of high technology. Totally... normal! No, no, no, no. It can't be, it's too normal!"

"Only for you could 'too normal' be a problem."

"Could there be some sort of... I dunno. A shield or something?" Alex speculated. "Like those damper things?"

"Could be. Which is why I can't just go up there until I know what we're dealing with. What I really need is a look in there... Hold on!"

"What?" Amy and Alex asked slowly, together.

"Use the data bank. Get me the plans of this building – I want to know its history, the layout, everything. Meanwhile, I shall recruit a spy." The line went dead. Again.

Alex clapped his hands together, smiling. "Something to do," he said happily.

"Do we have to go back to the library?" Amy asked, sighing.

"No!" Alex said, gesturing to the monitor and pulling it around towards the typewriter. "Data bank. Everything we need is on here." He bent down to type on the typewriter, before straightening up again. "What's the address?"

"79 Aickman Road," Amy recalled. Alex typed it in and hit enter. Nothing. "Colchester, Essex," Amy elaborated. Alex typed it in but still nothing. He added 'Earth' followed by 'Sol Three' to no avail. "Great," Amy said irately. "The one thing he asks us to do and we can't do it. Why won't it find it?"

"Dunno," Alex replied, trying as many rewordings of his search as possible. "It'll be on here somewhere. Maybe you need to type in Gallifreyan or something."

"And he forgot to mention that?"

"We could still go through it manually," Alex muttered, going to the menu and selecting 'The Mutter's Spiral' and then 'The Sol System'.

"And how long will that take?"

"A while," Alex admitted.

Amy groaned. "Why can't he get it himself? Surely this Craig has a computer or somethin'... Why can't he use a normal search engine like everyone else."

Alex stopped typing and looked at Amy. "Search engine?"

Amy frowned. "Yeah? Like Google? Yahoo?"

"No, literally. A Search. Engine! An engine that searches. Oh Amelia Pond, you're good. Come on!"

T H E L O D G E R

After a few minutes of getting lost, Alex and Amy eventually found their way to what the Doctor called the drawing room. On the right wall were bookcases filled with books and magazines. Why they didn't belong in the library, Alex didn't know. At the far end was an ornate fireplace, with a desk and chair in front of it. The walls were filled with clocks and timepieces and on the left, there were shelves holding all manner of clutter.

"What's in here?" Amy asked, intrigued.

"Stuff," Alex replied simply.

"'Stuff'?"

"Look around," Alex told her. "Stuff. The Doctor says this is his study – he never studies. He just... dumps stuff in here. Look." He strolled over to one of the shelves on the left and picked up an old, white, porcelain mask. "Ring any bells?"

"That's Liz Ten's," Amy recalled, taking it from him.

"Yep. And look." He picked up the long, thin object nearby and placed it in front of his face. "You. Will. Be. Exterminated!"

Amy laughed, taking the Dalek eye-stalk from him and placing it down on the side. She picked something else up in disbelief. "A cricket ball? Seriously?"

"You'd have to ask him," Alex chuckled. "And Christ _alone_ knows why he'd need one of these," he said, holding up a gas mask from World War Two.

Amy chortled and put the cricket ball down again. "So, what're we doing here?"

"Well," Alex said, opening drawers, rifling through them and closing them again. "I've also dumped stuff here in my time. I dumped one thing in one of these drawers, something that could be bloody useful right about now,"

"What's it look like?" asked Amy, opening drawers at the other end of the room.

"It's... round. Small and silver-y grey. Got hinges at one end, so it can flip up."

"Like this?" Amy asked after a few seconds. Alex glanced at her and his face lit up. "Yes, exactly like that," he said, taking it off her and smiling at it. "C'mon."

"What is it?" Amy asked as they made their way back to the control room/

"It's technology from a species called the Ik-haals. Psychic species. This thing is literally a search engine." He flipped it up to show the button inside. "You hold this button down for... two seconds, I think it is. Release it and then think about what you want to know. Then it hacks into the nearest computer system and finds out the info for you," Alex told her happily.

"Handy," Amy responded, impressed.

"Very."

"Why've you got one though?"

Oh. I had a run-in with a few Ik-haals. One of them gave me this as an apology. Nothing to worry about... Here we go then!" he said happily as they turned a corner and climbed up the stairs to the console room. "Let's get this rolling."

"How does it work?" Amy asked with interest as Alex opened Sao-mel's device and stood in front of the scanner.

"Pressing the button opens a link. It taps into your brain waves. Shh," he told her, closing his eyes and pressing the button. He released it and spoke under his breath. _"79 Aickman Road. 79 Aickman Road. 79 Aickman Road."_

The gramophone fired up suddenly, causing Alex to jump. "Amy? Alex?" asked the Doctor, sounding rather tired.

"That's Amy Pond. And Alex Morgan!" said a voice in the background.

"Yeah, we're here," Amy replied. "Doctor, who's that?"

"Oh this is Craig, he owns the flat. Say 'ello Craig. You two got those plans yet?"

"Still searching for them. Alex used some weird... alien thing."

"Ik-haal tech," Alex elaborated.

"Oh good. Any time you like. Anyway, I've worked it out... with psychic help from a cat."

"A cat?"

"Yeah, I know," the Doctor said gleefully. "He's got a time engine in the flat upstairs. He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does they get burnt up, hence the stain-"

"From the ceiling!" cried the man called Craig in the background.

"Well done, Craig. And you two nearly get thrown off into the Vortex."

"Lovely."

The TARDIS rumbled.

"People are dying up there!" Craig shouted. "People are dyingPeople are dyingPeople are dying,"

The TARDIS lurched again, throwing them both off balance. Amy shrieked and held on to Alex, bringing him down with her as she fell.

"They're being killed!"

The pair of them pulled themselves to their feet as the console beeped. The monitor displayed a floor plan of the building with a short paragraph next to it. The plan however, showed the first floor only.

"It's not done yet," Amy said irritably, hitting the leather-bound monitor.

Alex frowned and picked up Sao-mel's device. As far as he knew, it never failed. "Yes it is," Alex said slowly. He and Amy both skimmed through the text next to the plan and came to the same conclusion at precisely the same time.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted out. "Hang on!"

"Craig!" the Doctor called. "Come on! Someone's dying... up... there..."

"It's Sophie! It's Sophie that's dying up there, it's Sophie!"

"Doctor!" Alex and Amy shouted down the receiver together as loud as they could. "STOP!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" the Doctor commanded. "Alex? Amy?"

"Are you upstairs?" Amy asked hurriedly.

"Just going in,"

"No you're not!" Alex told him.

"Yes we are, 'course we are; we're up the stairs!"

"No! We've found the plans. You can't be upstairs; it's a one-storey building." Amy shouted. "There is no upstairs!"

A few seconds of silence passed as, presumably, the Doctor and Craig entered the flat. "What?" Craig said confusedly.

"What? Oh. Oh, of course! The time engine isn't _in_ the flat, the time engine _is_ the flat! Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS!" the Doctor surmised, intrigued.

"No," Craig said emphatically, "there's always been an upstairs!"

"Has there? Think about it."

"Yes." Craig paused. "No. I don't-"

"Perception filter. More than a disguise; it tricks your memory..."

"Doctor," Alex called over the intercom. "What's in there, what've you found?"

"It's a... spaceship. A time engine. Like a badly-constructed TAR-"

A terrible, high-pitched scream in the background interrupted the Doctor.

"Sophie!" Craig shouted amid some electrical crackling. "Oh my God, Sophie!"

"It's controlling her, it's willing her to touch the activator."

Craig shouted out in what sounded like frustration. "It's not having her!"

They heard the Sonic activate. "Argh! Deadlock seal!"

"Doctor, do something!"

The electrical crackling stopped and silence filled the TARDIS. Alex and Amy glanced at each other, both wondering if they'd been cut off.

"What?" the Doctor asked, telling them otherwise. "Why's it let her go?"

"That's a good thing, isn't it Doctor?" Amy asked, frowning

"You will help me," said a new, elderly voice before the Doctor could respond.

"Right! Stop! Crashed ship, let's see... Hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue! Please state the nature of your emergency."

"The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required."

"You're the emergency crash program, a hologram. What, you've been luring people up here so you can try them out?" The Doctor activated the Sonic again.

"You will help meYou will help meYou will help me," stated various voices of varying ages and genders, overlapping each other.

"Hush," the Doctor said in response to something Alex couldn't hear. "But human brains aren't strong enough; they just burn. You're stupid aren't you? You just keep trying!"

The elderly man voice was back. "Seventeen people have been tried. 6,000,400,026 remain."

There was a pause before the Doctor spoke again. "Oh for goodness' sake. The top floor of Craig's building is in fact an alien spaceship intent on slaughtering the population of this planet. Any questions? No, good."

"The correct pilot has now been found," said the crash program.

"Yes, I was a bit worried you were gonna say that..."

"He means you Doctor, doesn't he?" Amy asked as the TARDIS continued to shudder and judder constantly, a red light beginning to flood the room.

"Ah!" Alex exclaimed as the gramophone emitted an intense electrical buzzing. He altered the settings so that it would pick up the Doctor's voice better, lowering the intensity of non-verbal noise.

"The correct pilot has been found. The correct pilot has been found."

"What's happening?" Amy called.

"It's pulling me in; I'm the new pilot!" the Doctor said breathlessly, struggling against something or other.

"Well that's good isn't it?" Alex asked, trying to keep his balance. "It's you, you can fly it, can't you?"

"No I can't!" the Doctor shouted, struggling to speak coherently. "I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does!"

"Leave it to you to be _too good_ to fly a ship!" Amy cried.

"The correct pilot has been found."

"No! Worst choice ever! I promise you, stop this!"

"Doctor!" The rumbling in the bowels of the TARDIS was getting louder and both Alex and Amy had to grip the console to stay stationary. "It's getting worse!"

"It doesn't want everyone," the Doctor said, straining. "Craig, it didn't want you!"

"I-I-I spoke to him, he said I- he said I couldn't help him," replied Craig's frantic voice.

"It didn't want Sophie before today but now it does. Why? What's changed?" He paused to shout out in pain. "No! I gave her the idea of leaving! It's a machine that _needs_ to leave; it wants people who want to escape! And you don't want to leave, Craig, you're Mr Sofa Man!"

"Doctor!"

"Craig, you can shut down the engine. Put your hand on the panel and concentrate on why you want to stay!"

"Craig, no!" said, presumably, Sophie.

"Will it work?"

"Yes,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Is that a lie?"

"Of course it's a lie!"

"It's good enough for me. Geronimo!"

A split second passed before all hell broke loose. The previously constant red light was now flashing like mad. The shaking hit a new high, as did the pitch of Amy's scream. Sparks flew as the TARDIS tumbled, throwing them both from side to side. From behind the pandemonium, they could hear Craig's anguished screams coming down the line.

"Craig! What's keeping you here? Think of everything that makes you want to stay here. Why don't you want to leave?"

"Ah! Sophie! I don't wanna leave Sophie! I can't leave Sophie, I love Sophie!"

"I love you too Craig, you idiot!" Sophie told Craig.

If it were possible, the shaking got even worse. They were in danger of being buried in sparks as areas of the console spontaneously exploded, small fires beginning to form around the room.

"Honestly, d'you mean that?"

"Of course I mean it! Do you mean it?"

"I've always meant it! Seriously though, do you mean it?"

"Yes,"

"Oh God," Alex muttered, rolling his eyes as Amy groaned in disdain.

"But what about the monkeys?"

"No, Craig, not again, not now, the planet's about to burn. For God's sake, kiss the girl!"

Apparently Sophie and Craig had done as they were told. The TARDIS settled almost instantaneously, the light returned to normal, the miniature fires burnt out.

"Oh thank you God," Alex breathed, his legs like jelly. "Thank you," Alex called out loud to the Doctor. "You did it," he sighed contentedly, leaning against the console.

"Oh you've done it!" Amy joined in, cheering. "Now the screens just zeros! Now it's minus ones, minus twos, minus threes. Big yes!" she shouted, she and Alex high-fiving.

"Help meHelp meHelp meHelp meHelp meHelp meHelp me," said a number of different voices as crashes and bangs came from the other end of the line.

"Big no," responded the Doctor ominously.

"Help meHelp meHelp meHelp me,"

"Can we switch it off?" Craig shouted in fear.

"Emergency shutdown, it's imploding, everybody out, out, out!"

"Help meHelp meHelp meHelp me,"

A rushing of wind told them that the Doctor was running, fast. Both Alex and Amy attempted to call the Doctor's name. There was no reply...

T H E L O D G E R

There had been no response from the Doctor over the earpiece for hours, despite Alex and Amy's constant trying. Amy had suggested that perhaps they didn't manage to get out of the imploding spaceship, but Alex had refused to entertain the notion. The monitor was still a bit shakey, so they couldn't tell what was outside, or if they'd even landed. Best to play the waiting game, they'd concluded.

So it was that when the Doctor finally burst in, calling out that "The Doctor is in!" he was met with cries of pleasure and relief from Alex and Amy, as well as a tight hug from each. He grinned his Doctor-grin and took his jacket off, dumping it on a nearby chair. He then pulled the main TARDIS lever and set it in motion. "Back in time! You need to go to the paper shop, leave that note for me," he told Amy.

"Right little matchmaker aren't you?" she smiled. Alex glanced at Amy before noticing she was looking at him, and hurriedly averted his gaze. He walked backwards and collapsed into a chair.

"Ohh, Rectifier's playing up again! Hold on." He removed the stethoscope he'd been using and jumped down the nearby stairs. "You write the note and I'll change that will," he said as he disappeared from sight.

"You got a pen?" Amy called after him.

"Make sure it's a red pen," the Doctor specified.

Amy glanced at Alex, who shrugged. "Try his jacket."

She jogged to the other chair where the Doctor had thrown down his jacket. She rummaged through the pockets, before she found something and stopped in her tracks.

"Got one?" Alex asked, oblivious. No reply. "Amy?" He looked over to see Amy staring at a bright red ring box, a look of pure shock on her face.


	41. Meanwhile: Eight

_Right guys. As the last Meanwhile of the series, I've basically run out of things to write about. Both the established series arc as well as my own are pretty much done, other than the reveal in the finale. I shoe-horned in that letter in The Lodger to extend the arc a bit. But because of that, this Meanwhile is particularly short. My general rule for a Meanwhile in 1000 words, which I ONLY JUST made this time around._

_YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT EPISODE'S NEXT THOUGH, RIGHT?_

Meanwhile... : Eight

_Two weeks later..._

"How does Space Florida sound?" the Doctor asked, grinning like a young boy.

Amy laughed. "Space Florida? What's that?"

"It's Florida. But in space. Pretty self-explanatory Pond, pay attention. But it's got everything. All the shops and theme parks and... and beaches, _but_, in space."

"Oh... I hate the beach," Alex admitted, groaning.

"How can you _hate_ the beach?"

"The sea's always cold, there's always fatties in speedos, the sand gets everywhere... you're washing it out of your hair for a fortnight."

"Nah, the beach!" the Doctor said happily, pumping an instrument on the console. "The beach is the best! Automatic sand!"

"Automatic sand?" asked Amy in disbelief. "What does that mean?

"It's automated. Totally. Cleans up the lolly sticks all by itself. The cigarette butts, the washed-off plasters, everything."

"Hey. I'm all for a holiday. We never did get to Rio. But the last time we went to a beach, we got attacked by Sea Devils. Kind of ruined the attraction, to be honest with you."

"Fair point. Oh! Give me one second..." he tailed off as he ran from the room and out of sight.

"Amy!"

Amy turned in confusion at the call of her name. "Did you hear that?" she asked Alex slowly.

"I heard something," Alex replied. It had sounded like the Doctor. But that wasn't possible; he'd just left the room.

"I thought it was..." Amy trailed off. Alex simply nodded, words not needed. "It couldn't have been though,"

"No. Of course it couldn't. Because he just left the room in that direction," Alex said, sounding surer than he felt.

"Definitely not," Amy agreed.

"Absolutely not,"

"No."

They both exchanged glances for a second or two, before walking towards where they had heard the disembodied, yet familiar voice. Alex checked beneath the console, while Amy looked down the nearby corridor. They both checked the wall for hidden panels, even pulling the hat stand back to see if it acted as some sort of lever.

"There you g- What're you two doing?" the Doctor asked, returning to the room to find both Alex and Amy poking at the wall, listening for hollow-sounding areas.

"Thought we heard something," Alex told him, straightening up after a moment or two.

"Nothing can get into my TARDIS unless I say so," the Doctor said proudly. "Anyway, here." He threw a can of something at Alex as he walked back up to the console, who caught it. "Sea Devil repellent."

Alex looked at the can and rolled his eyes. "This is insect repellent. With 'Sea Devil' written over it in black marker pen."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yeah. I noticed that when I bought it."

"I genuinely can't tell if you're being stupid or someone actually conned you with this."

"Me neither. Now, you, put this on and you, put this on," he replied, throwing swimsuits at both Alex and Amy. "We've landed."

M E A N W H I L E . . .

"I know what you mean, about the cold sea," Amy told Alex as they floated in the surprisingly warm sea (The Doctor had neglected to mention the fact that there was an artificial sun heating it). "Remember the sea when we went to the south of France?"

"No," Alex frowned, unable to recall ever venturing into the southern French sea. Amy splashed his face with water.

"Yes you do," she reprimanded. "We went for my nineteenth."

Alex realised, too late, that Amy and Rory must have visited the south of France fairly recently, Amy having implanted Alex into that memory. "I know!" he laughed, not entirely convincingly. "Just... testing."

Amy rolled her eyes, unappreciative of his 'test'. "I'm getting out," she announced. "Warm or not, there's only so much tangled seaweed around your ankles you can take. What's that?" she asked as they waded out of the sea and onto the sand, pointing to a lumpy white mixture poking out of the top of Alex's pocket.

Alex frowned and grabbed a handful of it. "I think it's... paper. Got wet in the sea."

"Receipt for the shorts?" Amy grinned.

"Probably," Alex chuckled. He squeezed the sopping mess in his fist, drying it out a bit. He unfurled his knuckles to have a look at it. A couple of words seemed unaffected. He took his sunglasses off to get a proper look. "_f the Univer_" he read, muttering. He'd read a certain letter enough to recognise those words. He knew the whole thing off by heart. He hadn't been able to try and scan the letter again since his first attempt. Amy, the Doctor or both were always in the control room and always quizzed him about what he was doing whenever he tried.

"What is it then?" Amy asked.

Alex didn't reply. He turned and wandered off in the opposite direction, muttering something about the toilet. He delved his hand back into his pocket, seized another pile of mush and sifted through it. Eventually he came to another legible piece of writing. "_me _and_ Space befo_" he read. There was no denying it. This was the letter. How the hell had it got into these shorts? He'd never worn them before today. He glanced over at Amy lying on a towel, sun-drying herself in her bikini, and the Doctor pacing behind her, very obviously bored. It was he who had fetched the shorts for Alex... But he hadn't shown or even asked the Doctor about the letter. How did he know they had found it? Had Amy mentioned it perhaps? Still, that didn't explain why the Doctor would want to destroy it...


	42. The Pandorica Opens: One

_YES! One of my all-time favourite episodes. I've been looking forward to writing this for months. Here's hoping I do it justice._

_Thanks again for all your reviews! I have to admit though, I always get nervous before reading a new one. Still! If you like what you read, review, favourite and all that jazz. I'm not really in to bigging up my things, so do what you like :) _

The Pandorica Opens – Part One

"But you honestly don't recognise it?" Alex asked Amy, standing beside her as she sat on the swing beneath the console, scrutinizing her own engagement ring.

"Why would I?" she asked. "It's the Doctor's."

"It doesn't look like..." he paused, taking a deep breath. "_Our_ ring to you?"

She looked at Alex as if he were a piece of dirt. "Of course it doesn't. Ours was completely different."

"Alright," Alex replied defensively. "Just checking."

"We should ask him. The Doctor."

"Va-voom!" the Doctor interrupted before Alex could reply. He was hanging down from the upper level looking at them.

"Va-_what_?" Amy asked, wrinkling her nose up.

"Come up," he grinned, straightening up. "This'll be good!"

"I'm gonna ask him," Amy muttered to Alex as they walked towards the stairs to the upper level.

"Don't do it yet," Alex pleaded.

"Why not?"

"Just _don__'__t_."

"Can't believe I never thought of this before!" the Doctor cried as they arrived back at the console. He was dancing around it, throwing levers. "It's genius! Right. Landed," he announced as they did indeed land. "Come on."

"Where are we?" Amy asked as the Doctor strode towards the door, Alex in tow.

"Planet One. The oldest planet in the universe and there's a cliff of pure diamond and, according to legend, on the cliff, there's writing. Letters fifty feet high; a message from the dawn of time. And no-one knows what it says because no-one's ever translated it... 'til today."

"What happens today?"

"Us. The TARDIS can translate anything. All we have to do is open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history." He grinned, taking each of them by the hand and leading them towards the slightly ajar door, which he kicked open.

The three of them stepped out into a glorious setting. Humungous alien trees surrounded them of varying shapes and colours and between them, mushrooms and toadstools, twenty-feet high. Almost luminous birds soared through the skies. Alex directed his eyes to the enormous cliff of sheer diamond and read the message from the beginning of the universe...

'Hello Sweetie'

"Va-voom," Amy muttered, smiling.

T H E P A N D O R I C A O P E N S

The TARDIS soon landed at the location the message had specified. The three of them filed through the door to find themselves in a place quite different from Planet One.

"Right place?" Amy asked

"Just followed the co-ordinates on the cliff-face. Earth. Britain. 1:02 am." He frowned and tapped his watch. "Nope. Pm." They strolled forward before stopping short. "No. A.D." Laid out before them like a blanket were rows and rows of tents, hundreds of them. Men in crimson robes and golden armour flitted in between tents, some riding whinnying horses.

"Romans," Alex murmured in disbelief.

"A Roman legion," Amy elaborated gleefully.

"Well, yes. The Romans invaded Britain several times during this period."

"Oh I know! My favourite topic at school... Invasion of the _Hot_ Italians... Yeah, I did get marked down for the title."

"Found it a bit dull myself," Alex told her, still gazing out in wonder at the legion. It went on for as far as the eye could see. "This... might change my mind though."

"We'll make a Roman out of my man yet," Amy laughed, punching him on the arm.

"Hail Caesar!" cried a voice. A man dressed in Roman armour – and looking positively knackered – had run up the hill to meet them. He saluted them and bent down in respect.

"Hi," the Doctor replied simply.

"Welcome to Britain. We are honoured by your presence." The soldier wrung his hands together nervously, keeping his eyes on the ground at all times.

"Well, you're only human," the Doctor said cheerfully. "Arise... Roman person."

The soldier did as he was told. "Cleopatra will see you now," he told them, far more confident-sounding. He spun on his heel and traipsed back down the hill towards the entrance to the camp. The three of them exchanged looks of apprehension and excitement before hurrying after him.

"You realise that there's only one person who would've sent you a message like that," Alex said to the Doctor as they neared the entrance.

"Yeah. So keep an eye out for her. Whatever she wants, it's got to be important."

"I can't believe we get to meet Cleopatra though," Amy said, practically jumping on the spot.

"Amy, this is supposed to be your favourite school topic! Pay attention. This is 102 A.D. yes? Well, by now, Cleopatra's been dead for... 32 years?"

Amy's face fell. "Oh. Well why does he think he's taking us to Cleopatra?"

"Probably the same reason he thinks the Doctor's Caesar," Alex reasoned.

"This is where I leave you," the Roman said, stopping and gesturing for them to enter the tent they had arrived at. He saluted as they passed and left. Alex bowed his head slightly as he went inside, avoiding the low-hanging cloth. He glanced around, noting a gloriously-dressed woman being waited on by two topless men.

"Hello Sweetie," River said, passing her goblet of wine to one of her servants and gesturing for them both to leave.

"River!" Amy said in surprise. "Hi..."

"Your highness," Alex grinned, bowing theatrically as the two servants left. River responded similarly, nodding her thanks gracefully and gesturing for him to arise.

The Doctor was not so amused. "You graffitied the oldest cliff-face in the universe."

"You wouldn't answer your phone." She picked up a scroll on the small table near to her throne and held it up for the Doctor to see.

"What's that?"

"It's a painting. Your friend Vincent." The Doctor snatched the painting off of her and began to unravel it. River went on. "One of his final works. He had visions, didn't he? I thought you ought to know about this one."

The Doctor placed the painting on a table and held it down for all to see. The four of them gathered around it and three pairs of eyes widened in shock. Painted in the idiomatic style of Vincent van Gogh was an explosion. An exploding TARDIS.

"Why's it exploding?" Amy asked fearfully.

"I assume it's some kind of warning,"

"What, something's gonna happen to the TARDIS?"

"It might not be that literal. Anyway, this is where he wanted you. Date and map reference on the door, see?" she gestured to the door on the painting.

"Does it have a title?" the Doctor asked, taking a seat on River's throne.

"The Pandorica Opens," River replied.

"Pandorica?" Alex murmured. "I've heard that before. Prisoner Zero, remember, in the hospital?"

"'The Pandorica will open, Silence will fall'" Amy recalled, nodding. "What is it?"

"A box, a cage, a prison. It was built to contain the most feared thing in all the universe..."

"And it's a fairytale," the Doctor said irritably, pacing. "A legend. It _can__'__t__be__real_."

"It it _is_ real, it's here and it's opening. And it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding," she told his as the Doctor seized some maps nearby and spread them all over the table, scanning each of them in turn. "Hidden, obviously. Buried for centuries; you won't find it on a map!"

"No. But if you buried the most dangerous thing in the universe... you'd want to remember where you put it... there!" he cried, pointing at a point on the fifth map. River cast her eye over it before gasping slightly.

"We're gonna need horses," she said, hurrying from the tent to call for her servants...

The ride to Stonehenge was thoroughly uncomfortable. River had had to give Alex and Amy, neither of whom were particularly animal-people, a crash course in horse-riding. The Doctor and River sped ahead, comfortably galloping across fields and leaping over bushes. Alex and Amy straggled behind, attempting to avoid any obstacles whilst at the same time attempting to stay travelling in a straight line. Alex was relieved when Stonehenge came into view and the four horses began to canter, then to trot and finally to a stop.

The four of them ran through one of the enormous stone arches and stood in the centre. The Doctor began scanning each of the stones in turn with his Screwdriver. River began to type away on her miniature console.

"How come it isn't new?" Amy pondered, running a hand across the ancient stones.

"Because it's already old. It's been here for thousands of years."

"I used to come here with my parents all the time," Alex told them, standing next to the very stone Karen had tried in vain to push over. "The last time... it was the last time we were all together. Before they died in two thousand years." Not for the first time, Alex half-considered asking the Doctor to help him save his parents. Instead, he saved his breath; he knew what the answer would be. "I always loved this place. Never been back since."

"So, this Pandorica thing," Amy spoke up after a few moments, talking to River. "Last time we saw you, you warned us about it after we climbed out of the Byzantium."

"Spoilers," River replied, putting a finger to her lips.

"No, but you said-"

"Amy," Alex interrupted, taking her by the hand and leading her away from River. "The lady said 'spoilers'. Doctor, I've heard of this thing. The Pandorica."

"What?" the Doctor asked, intrigued. So intrigued in fact, that he stopped scanning the stones to glare at him. "How?"

"I knew I recognised the name but... I've just remembered where from," Alex told him, lowering himself onto one of the stones.

"Where?"

"My grandmother. She used to tell me stories when I stayed over. Bedtime stories, that kind of thing. One of her stories was of a big box... called the Pandorica."

"Your grandmother..." the Doctor muttered, gazing into the distance, deep in thought.

"Yeah," Alex replied. The Doctor continued to stare. After a moment or two, Alex cleared his throat. "Doctor? You okay?"

The Doctor grinned. "Fine!" He gave Alex a friendly push in the chest, causing him to tumble backwards off the stone. "River, getting anything?"

"There're fry particles everywhere. Energy weapons discharged on this site."

"If the Pandorica _is_ here, it contains the mightiest warrior in history. Half the galaxy would want a piece of that. Maybe even fight over it."

"Yeah," Alex agreed ominously, staring in shock at what he'd fallen back on to. "And I think the fight's already begun." The Doctor, River and Amy all turned to look at him. They in turn stared in shock as Alex held up the decapitated, sizzling head of a Cyberman.

Night was closing in, fast. River's scans revealed that one stone in particular covered the entrance to what the Doctor called the 'Underhenge'. Sending Alex and Amy to set up a circle of lights surrounding the stones, River placed four anti-gravity clamps on the stone and stepped back. All was prepared.

"Right then. Ready," she said simply. She pressed one or two buttons on her machine and waited. After what seemed an eternity, the stone lifted off the ground, just slightly. Ceremoniously, it shifted to the right, revealing a dark, narrow staircase descending into the bowels of the earth, cobwebs from long-dead spiders decorating the path.

"The Underhenge," the Doctor reiterated as River shone her torch down the passage.

The four of them crept down the steps in silence, no one daring to make the first noise. As Alex came to the bottom, he found himself in a small, nondescript chamber, nothing of importance or interest in the vicinity. The Doctor pointed his Screwdriver at a nearby flambeau and ignited it, the flickering light revealing a very large, very old door lining an entire wall of the cavern. Amy's hand slithered down Alex's arm and found his hand as the Doctor reached for the plank of wood that was keeping the door closed and slowly lifted it. It clattered to the ground, making what sounded like a small explosion in the confines of the tiny chamber.

The Doctor placed a hand on the right door, River taking up a position at the left. The Doctor grinned in anticipation, glancing at his three companions in turn before slowly pushing open the great door. Dust rained from the ceiling along with a few dead spiders. They found themselves in a far larger hall than the antechamber. Stones that seemed to be connected to the ones up top lined the room from floor to ceiling, dividing the room up into sections. Impressive and yet indecipherable inscriptions decorated the walls and there, the centrepiece of the whole arrangement was a huge box, similar decorations adorning its four sides.

"The Pandorica," the Doctor murmured in wonder.

"More than just a fairytale," River replied smugly. The Doctor cast her a look before slowly walking into the room.

"Cyber arm," Alex noted, nodding at the floor at the Doctor's feet. There was indeed the amputated arm of a long-dead Cyberman sparking on the floor, scorch and rust marks running all the way the forearm, matching those of the head upstairs.

"What is it?" Amy whispered. "What's it doing here?"

No-one replied, all too enthralled by the Pandorica to form any kind of response. The Doctor walked towards it slowly and tentatively placed a hand on it. "There was a goblin, or a trickster. Or a warrior. A nameless terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos..." He traced his finger around the circular design on the side of the box. "And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

"How did it end up in there?"

"You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it."

"I hate good wizards in fairy tales," River sighed as she handed Amy her torch. "They always turn out to be him."

"Hold on," Alex spoke up. "Nothing could stop this thing, nothing could hold it back, and yet they managed to trap it in a box?"

"You always have to find the flaw in things, don't you?" the Doctor moaned. "The Pandorica holds the most feared being ever to have existed, and you find fault with the story. Are you sure you aren't Scottish too?"

"Oi," Amy reprimanded. "So I guess the Pandorica's kinda like Pandora's Box then, yeah? Almost the same name."

"Sorry, what?" the Doctor asked, placing his torch in a bracket on the wall.

"The story. Greek myth. Pandora's Box. With all the worst things in the world in it. That was my favourite book when I was a kid,"

"Cheerful," Alex muttered, lighting a third torch from the Doctor's and placing it in a second bracket. The Doctor however, was slightly more concerned.

"What's wrong?" Amy laughed nervously as the Doctor stared at her in confusion.

"Your favourite school topic. Your favourite story." He turned to Alex. "And your favourite place to visit... Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, in which case, always ignore a coincidence." He went back to scanning the Pandorica.

"So can you open it?" River asked.

"Easily. Anyone can break _in_to a prison. But I'd rather know what I'm gonna find first."

"You won't have long to wait," River told him, reading off her machine. "It's already opening. There are layers and layers of security protocols in there... and they're being disabled one-by-one." She placed one ear to the box. "Like it's being unlocked from the inside."

"How long do we have?" the Doctor asked, whispering without realising.

"Hours, at the most."

"What kind of security?"

"Everything. Dead Locks, Time Stops, Matter Lines..."

"What would need all that?"

"What could get past all that?"

"Do you ever feel slightly redundant?" Alex asked Amy, joining her as she strolled the room, lighting the few other torches that were lying around. "Not needed?" he smiled, nodding over to the Doctor and River, deep in conversation.

"All the time," Amy grinned. She stopped and spun on the spot, looking back towards the entrance. "Did you hear that?"

Alex frowned and shook his head.

"Hello you," the Doctor was saying as Alex and Amy rejoined them, his forehead leaning on the Pandorica. "Have we met?"

"So why would it start to open now?" River asked fearfully.

"No idea."

"Let me guess: because you've arrived," Alex said shrewdly.

"Possibly. Maybe the thing inside sensed my presence... or the TARDIS' presence. The Pandorica will open... Silence will fall... Maybe that's now."

Amy cleared her throat. "How did Vincent know about this? He won't even be born for centuries."

"The stones," the Doctor explained. "These stones are great big transmitters, broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone – '_The__Pandorica__is__opening__'_."

"Doctor. Everyone? Everywhere?"

"Even poor old Vincent heard it. In his dreams. But what's in there? What could justify all this?"

"Doctor, everyone?" River repeated.

"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it. Why don't I know?"

"Doctor," River said again. "You said everyone could hear it. So who else is coming?"

The Doctor stopped and turned slowly on the spot. "Oh."

"Oh," Alex agreed, stopping his inspection of the Pandorica's design and looking at River in worry.

"Oh?" Amy asked. "Oh what?"

"If it is basically a transmitter, we should be able to fold back the signal," River said, walking to a nearby stone and placing her machine next to it.

"Doing it?" the Doctor asked, running around the chamber and re-scanning each stone individually.

"Doing what?"

"Think about it Amy," Alex said. "Stonehenge is sending out a message everywhere, on all frequencies to all times. 'The Pandorica is opening'. 'The most feared being in all the cosmos'."

"Like I said, half the galaxy would want a piece of that. Maybe even fight over it."

"And even if not, they might come to force whatever's coming out back inside," Alex reasoned.

"Yeah," River agreed. "So who heard?"

"River, should be feeding back to you now, getting anything?"

"Give me a moment,"

"River, quickly, anything?"

River's machine beeped twice in quick succession. She stared at it in horror. "Around this planet... there are at least ten thousand star ships."

"_At__least?__" _Amy asked disbelievingly.

"Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, I don't know, there are too many readings!"

"What kind of star ships?"

A harsh robotic voice coming from the skies outside answered the Doctor's question. "_Maintaining__orbit_," spoke one Dalek voice.

"_I__obey_," replied another. "_Shield__cover__compromised__on__ion__sectors_."

"Daleks," Amy mumbled in fear. "Those are Daleks."

"No," Alex said in despair, closing his eyes.

"_Scans__detect__no__temporal__activity_!"

"_Soft__grid__scan__commencing_."

"_Reverse__thrust__for__compensatory__stabilisation_."

"Daleks, Doctor," River said anxiously.

"_Launch__preliminary__armament__protocol_!"

"Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay." He began to pace on the spot, throwing the Sonic from hand to hand. "Dalek fleet. Minimum twelve thousand battleships, armed to the teeth. AH! But we've got surprise on our side; they'll never expect four people to attack twelve thousand Dalek battleships. Because we'd be killed instantly. So it'd be a fairly short surprise. Forget surprise."

"_Launch__sequence__proceeding,__begin__lock-off,__level__nine_," said a new, but still robotic voice.

"Doctor. Cyber-ships!"

"No, Dalek ships. Listen to them, those are Dalek ships!"

"Yes. Dalek ships _and_ Cyber ships."

"No problem, that's easy, we need to start a fight; turn them on each other. That's easy! It's the Daleks, they're SO cross."

"Sontaran. Four battle fleets,"

"My best pals," Alex rolled his eyes.

"Sontarans! Talk about cross, who stole all their handbags?"

"Terileptil. Slitheen. Chelonion. Nestene, Drahvin, Sycorax. Haemogoth. Zygon, Atraxi. Draconian. They're all here! For the Pandorica!"

The Doctor turned to face the Pandorica. "What are you? What could you _possibly_ be?" The ground rumbled as ships high above soared through the skies. The Doctor turned and ran towards the stairs. Alex chased after him, with River and Amy not far behind.

As they arrived outside, the sight was incredible. There were more ships in the sky collectively than Alex had ever seen, full stop. They all zoomed around, somehow dodging each other, filling the night sky with lights and sounds. Each and every one was circling Stonehenge and the Pandorica.

"What do we do?" Amy asked, staring at the ships with desolation in her eyes.

"Doctor, listen to me. Everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight. You can't win this; you can't even fight it! Doctor, this once. Just this one time, please, you _have_ to run!"

"Run _where_?"

"_Fight__how_?"

The Doctor paused, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulled out, for reasons beyond Alex, a pair of binoculars. He looked through them at the way they had come. "The greatest military machine in the history of the universe..."

"What is? The Daleks?"

"No! No, no, no. The Romans." He turned to his three friends and smiled. He had the answer.


	43. The Pandorica Opens: Two

_Well that was a pain in the backside. All the Dalek and Cyberman speech at the end of the last part being pushed together without any spaces. I thought at first it was because of the italics, but the italic part at the beginning of each chapter is always fine. "Maybe it's pure italics inside speech marks!" We shall find out._

_Speeding through this episode. Part three'll be up in a few days, and then we're on to the big finale :) _

The Pandorica Opens – Part Two

"Be as quick as you can," the Doctor ordered, looking up at River as she remounted her horse. "That lot won't wait forever."

"Don't worry sweetie," she smiled, winking. "I'll be back at your side before you know it. Take this." She threw the Doctor one of her machines. "We can keep in contact through it."

"Don't you need it?" Alex asked, noting that he'd almost never seen River without it. Even as he spoke, she removed a second device from inside her jacket.

"You think I'm the kind of girl who doesn't have two of these?" she asked, smiling.

"Go! Go get me Romans," the Doctor said impatiently, patting the horse as a signal for it to leave. It cantered away through the stone arch and galloped into the distance back towards the Roman camp. "You two should get back downstairs. Safer than up here."

"Then you're coming too," Amy told the Doctor, taking him by the arm and leading him towards the stone staircase. Alex smiled and followed. "So what's this got to do with the TARDIS?" Amy asked as they re-entered the chamber, picking up one of the flaming torches still burning away on the cavern floor.

"Nothing, as far as I know," the Doctor replied, resuming his scans of the Pandorica.

"But Vincent's painting. The TARDIS was exploding. Is that gonna happen?"

"To be fair, he never was the most... rational person," Alex reasoned. "Maybe he misinterpreted whatever the vision was. Maybe he just plain got it wrong."

"That would be wonderful," the Doctor murmured absent-mindedly, taking in the readings on River's machine and Sonicing the side of the Pandorica. "Now, there's force field technology – if I can enhance the signal I could extend it all over Stonehenge, could buy us half an hour."

"What good is half an hour?"

"There are fruit flies living on Hoppledom Six that live for twenty minutes... and they don't even mate for life." Alex and Amy exchanged glances. Eyes were rolled and heads were shook. "There was gonna be a point to that. I'll get back to you."

Amy was quiet for a moment, even more so than usual. Alex glanced over at her. She had Rory's bright red ring box in her hand and was evidently mulling things over. Before Alex could say anything, she turned to the Doctor and spoke. "Are you proposing to someone?" she asked him, holding up the open box.

"I'm sorry?" he asked, preoccupied.

"We found this in your pocket."

The Doctor realised what Amy was holding and shot an annoyed glance at Alex, who hurriedly averted his eyes. "No," the Doctor lied. "No, that's a... a memory. A friend of mine, someone I lost." He reached for the box, but Amy pulled away.

"It's weird. I feel... I dunno, something. I mean, I... I don't even remember what our ring looked like," she said to Alex. "But this one, I... it feels right."

"People fall out of the world sometimes but they... they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for: faces in photographs, luggage, half-eaten meals... rings. Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered... it _can_ come back."

Amy stared into the box intently, looking into the ring itself. Her eyes widened. Had they got through to her? She clipped the box shut and handed it back to the Doctor, smiling. "So was she nice? Your friend?"

Alex exhaled in disappointment, closing his eyes. The Doctor took the box and replaced it in his inside pocket, not replying. He began to re-begin work on the Pandorica, but turned back to Amy. "Remember that night you flew away with us?"

"Of course I do," Amy smiled, clearing her throat.

"And you asked me why we were taking you, and I told you there wasn't a reason? I was lying."

Alex looked at the Doctor, remembering how shoddy the reason he had given for taking Amy had been. Amy herself had even said that there was no real reason, not like the reason the Doctor had taken he, Alex, with him. He was about to point this out, but realised that this seemed to be the Doctor and Amy's moment, so decided to keep quiet.

"What, so you did have a reason?"

"Your house."

Amy rolled her eyes again. "'My house'!"

"It was too big. Too many empty rooms. Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life doesn't make any sense?"

Pain seared Alex's shoulder as a red-hot laser shot by, missing him by millimetres. More of them followed, blasting into the stones, the walls and the Pandorica itself. Amy shrieked out in surprise as the three of them ducked for cover, making their way behind the safety of the Pandorica.

"What the hell was that?" Alex asked, gasping for breath and rubbing his burnt shoulder.

"Need a proper look," the Doctor told them. "Got to draw its fire, give it a target."

"How?" Amy asked.

"You know how sometimes I have really brilliant ideas?"

"Yes..?"

"Sorry." Without another word of warning, he jumped out from behind the Pandorica, arms raised in the air as if he were doing a star-jump. "Look at me, I'm a target!" he cried. Three more laser shots fired in his direction, just missing him. Satisfied, he dove behind one of the nearby stones.

"What was it?" Alex and Amy asked together.

"It's the Cyberarm. Arm of a Cyberman. Could've guessed that really."

"And what's a Cyberman?"

"Well sort of part-man, part-robot. The organic part must've died out years ago now the robot part's looking for, well, fresh meat."

"What, _us_?"

"It's just like being an organ donor, except you're alive, and sort of, screaming. I need to get round behind it, could one of you draw its fire?"

"What like _you_ did?"

"You'll be fine if you're quick, it's only got one arm, literally!" He gave them both a large thumbs up.

"Okay, you or me?" Amy asked breathlessly.

"Both of us. Split up. The more of us there are, the less chance we have of getting hit. Yeah?"

"Okay," Amy agreed.

"Make your way to the far stone. In three... two... one... GO."

They both peeled away, running either side of the Pandorica. The Cyberarm fired up again, the gun mounted on the wrist twisting from side to side, trying to hit them both. Its aim was poor, probably, Alex thought, due to it not having any eyes. Alex's eyes on the other hand were set on the stone at the far side of the chamber. He drew near, ducking as another laser was fired in his direction, and dove to the sanctuary of the pillar. He glanced around and saw the Doctor wrestling with the arm in the centre of the room, Sonicing its circuitry. Finally, it settled down.

"Doctor?" Amy asked tentatively, slowly coming out of her own hiding place.

"Scrambled its circuits, but stay where you are! It could be bluffing."

"_Bluffing_? It's an arm!"

"I said _stay_ where you _are!_"

"Where's the rest of it?" Alex asked, leaning on his stone. "The arm's here, the head's upstairs..."

"Good question," the Doctor replied. "I'll stick it to the bottom of the list of questions I have to work out,"

"Doctor!" Amy shouted as she was yanked to the ground by what looked like a small metal wire around her boot.

"Amy!" the Doctor cried. Before he or anyone else could do a thing, the arm fired up again. White electric volts surrounded the Doctor's body, causing his body to shake and jolt violently. Eventually the volts faded and the Doctor fell to the floor, lifeless.

Alex made a split-second decision. The Doctor was unconscious but not in any immediate danger. Amy however was being attacked by something very much alive. He began to make his way towards her at speed, but a sound to his right distracted him. He glanced and saw the red laser beam emerge from the Cyberarm's gun and head straight at him, hitting him square in the chest. The last he heard was Amy shouting out his name in shock.

T H E P A N D O R I C A O P E N S

"He was lucky," a voice was saying. "Its power cells were depleted. A shot like that at full power would have gone straight through him. Kill him stone dead."

Alex opened his eyes and grunted, wincing. He felt the spot on his chest where he'd been hit, causing him to shout out in pain, alerting the nearby Doctor to his consciousness.

"Ah, you're awake," he said, smiling. "Good. Survived a shot from a Cyberarm, that's something to be proud of."

"Says the man who survived a deletion," Alex muttered, sitting up and smiling. "Where is it?" he asked, looking around.

"Oh, don't worry. It's gone," the Doctor gestured vaguely over his shoulder.

Alex followed the gesture with his eyes and noticed a man leaning on the Pandorica, looking at him nervously. He was dressed in Roman armour. "Oh. Hello. River delivered then?" he asked the Doctor.

"Delivered... one word for it," the Doctor agreed.

Alex looked at the Roman again, his face concealed by the shadow. Even so, he thought he looked somehow familiar. How was that possible? Perhaps he was a famous Roman hero. Maybe Alex had seen portraits of him in books.

"Hi," the Roman said, nodding in greeting.

"'Hi'? Not very Roman. What about "Greetings!"? Alex staggered to his feet, wincing once more, using the Doctor to balance and leaning back on one of the stone pillars.

"Sorry," he apologised. Alex looked at the odd Roman again. He was incredibly familiar, even his mannerisms, even his voice. "Good to see you again though,"

"Again?"

The Roman soldier stepped forward into the flickering light of a torch. Alex' eyes widened. The Roman soldier was almost an exact duplicate of the dead, never-existed, Rory Williams. Alex stared at him for a good few seconds before he caught himself. "Sorry. You look like someone I knew. Sort of knew."

The ground rumbled violently. The Pandorica was moving, the circular designs on its sides unlocking, an eerie green light emanating through. "Okay, the Pandorica's entering the final phase; it's opening. Bottom line, Alex, this _is_ Rory. He died and woke up as a Roman. Don't ask me to explain it because I don't know, and what I do know would take until Christmas to explain. We don't have time for emotional reunions..." he looked up to the ceiling and through as the spaceships above zoomed around, making their final preparations. "They're coming."

Alex stared at Rory for a few moments, unblinking. Rory held his gaze. Eventually, Alex merely shrugged. "Okay, fine, whatever. Rory, if I hadn't just regained consciousness, I'd probably lose it again. But okay. Good to see you too." He walked forwards and pulled Rory the Roman into a hug. Rory laughed quietly and returned the gesture.

"What did I say about emotional reunions?" the Doctor asked as he approached the Pandorica, scanning the circular design and examining it.

"Where's Amy?" Alex asked as they pulled apart.

"She's behind there. Only sedated, she'll be fine," the Doctor assured him. The ground shook again, knocking all three men off balance.

"You men, with me," Rory called to some of the other Romans milling about. He ran up the stairs as the rumbling intensified. The ships appeared to be preparing to land. Making a split-second decision, Alex followed him.

"We're surrounded," Rory muttered, instinctively ducking as two shining Sontaran pods came precariously close to the top of the taller stones before returning to the main ship. A number of spotlights hit the stone circle, originating from a few of the larger ships. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but Alex also thought he could hear weapons being primed. "What do we do?"

"You're the Roman Centurion," Alex smiled. "You do war. You tell me."

"I do war against Celts and Barbarians! Not... that lot! Has he even got a plan?" he asked, nodding back down the stone staircase.

As if on cue, the Doctor's voice, amplified multiple times, shot through the clearing. "Sorry, sorry, dropped it," he said as static noise and a tumbling noise reverberated around. "Hello Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe! But, bad news everyone!" He flew up from the staircase with an almighty jump and landed on the centre stone of Stonehenge. He was speaking into River's communicator, using it as a microphone. "'Cos guess who! Ha! Listen, you lot, you're all whizzing about, it's really very distracting! Could you all just stay still a minute, because I. AM. TALKING." The alien ships stopped moving almost instantaneously. The skies became quiet and still. The Doctor, satisfied, went on. "Now, the question of the hour is: Who's got the Pandorica? Answer: I do. Next question: Who's coming to take it from me?" He paused, spreading his arms out in anticipation, waiting. No challenger came forward. "Come o-o-on! Look at me! No plan, no back-up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else! I don't have anything, to, lose. SO! If you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceships with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica _tonight_, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then. _AND__THEN_! Do the smart thing! Let somebody else try first." He spread his arms out again in victory as the vast array of ships fled to a higher orbit as fast as their engines would fly them. Within seconds, the only indication that anything unusual was happening were the faint lights far in the distance that could easily be mistaken for stars. Rory sighed in relief as the Doctor threw him the communicator to catch. "That'll keep 'em squabbling for half an hour," he told them, smiling, receiving a warm grin from both Alex and Rory in return. "Romans..."

T H E P A N D O R I C A O P E N S

"So what's the plan?" Alex asked, leaning his shoulder on the Pandorica. "All you've done is scan this thing. Do you have any idea what's inside it yet?"

"No idea," the Doctor replied, lying on the floor. "Not getting any life signs yet; the defences and security are too strong."

"But do you have a theory?"

"Look, I only know the story, the fairytale; this is all new to me. I know as much as you do." He picked up River's console and fed some of the readings from his Screwdriver into it.

Alex nodded resignedly. "So... how can Rory be here?"

The Doctor ignored this question, sitting up suddenly. "You know as much as I do. You've heard the fairytale. What do you think is in here?"

Alex shrugged. "I dunno. A warrior-goblin that likes to trick people?"

"What did your grandmother tell you was in there?"

"She didn't know. She said no-one knew. Why?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh... just wondered what the human perspective was. Why d'you think she told you that story, Alex? Why d'you think she even knows that story?" Alex frowned. He had no reply. "You know, every family, even mine, has mysteries... mysteries that never really get solved, mysteries that get lost as the generations pass, getting buried in people's subconscious. People forget. Because they have to, because they need to... and sometimes because they want to. But nothing is ever truly forgotten. Things like that, they have a habit. Of returning."

Alex gazed at the Doctor in wonder. Eventually, he found his voice. "What are you saying?"

"Find your family's mystery. Solve it."

Hurried, clomping footsteps broke Alex's trance. "They're still out there," Rory reminded the Doctor in his characteristically nervous tone of voice, arriving at the bottom of the stairs. "What do we do?"

"If I can stop whatever's in this box getting out, then they'll all go home."

"Oh right."

"Rory, I'm sorry," the Doctor said, noticing something over Rory's shoulder. "You're going to have to be very brave now."

Amy staggered out from behind the Pandorica, grimacing. She walked directly past Rory, to his dismay and straight to the Doctor. "My head..." she moaned. The Doctor took her head in his hands and looked at her eyes. He gestured for her to open her mouth, which she did.

"Just your basic knock-out drops. Get some fresh air, you'll be fine," the Doctor laughed, patting her on the arm.

"Is it safe up there?"

"Not remotely, but it's fresh."

"Fine. Fancy a walk?" she asked, turning to Alex.

"_I__'__m_ alright here, thanks. Maybe..." He tailed off, as Amy turned on the spot and nearly walked into Rory.

Slight recognition lit-up Amy's eyes. "Oh, you're the guy, yeah? The one who did the... sword-y thing?"

Rory frowned in puzzlement. "Yup."

"Well, thanks for the swording. Nice swording." She patted him on the shoulder and left.

"No problem," Rory murmured as she walked away. Alex sighed. He had hoped that seeing Rory would spark a memory in Amy's mind. "Oh, my men are up there! They'll look after you,"

"Good. Love a Roman." Amy squeezed through the crevice, up the steps and out of sight.

"She doesn't remember me," Rory realised in shock. "How can she not remember me?"

"Because you never existed," the Doctor replied matter-of-factly.

"Never exis-? We were getting married!"

"No. You see, you weren't getting married. That marriage was never arranged, because you never existed. Now, she's marrying someone else."

"_Who_?" Rory cried, his fingers creeping towards the handle of his sword.

Slowly, Alex sheepishly raised a hand. "I had no choice," he all but grovelled. "You fell out of existence and she automatically assumed we were engaged."

"Have you treated her properly?" Rory asked confrontationally, getting slightly closer to Alex.

"Of course I have!" Alex replied, equally confrontationally.

Rory glared at Alex for a few moments before softening. "What d'you mean, never existed?" he asked the Doctor.

"There are cracks. Cracks in time. There's going to be a huge explosion in the future on one particular day. And every other moment in history is cracking around it."

"Well how does that work? What kind of explosion? What exploded?"

"Doesn't matter, the cracks are everywhere now. Get too close to them and you can fall right out of the universe. Every moment of your existence never was. Everything you did was done by someone else as far as the people you know are concerned. That's why Amy thinks she's engaged to Alex, because she's implanted _him_ into the memory of _you_ proposing."

"What, so I fell through a crack and now I was never born?"

"Basically."

"Well how did I end up here?"

"I dunno, you shouldn't have." He dropped the console by the Pandorica and faced Rory. "What happened? From your point of view, what physically happened?"

"I was in the cave... with you and Amy. We'd taken Alex home for his birthday. I got shot, I was dying. And then... I was just here. A Roman soldier. A proper Roman. Head full of Roman... stuff. A whole other life. Just here, like I'd woken up from a dream. Started to think it _was_ a dream! You two, and Amy, and Leadworth. And then today in the camp, the men were talking about 'visitors'. 'The Girl with the Red Hair'." He laughed derisively. "I thought you'd come back for me, but she can't even remember me!"

"Oh, shut up." The Doctor's blunt outburst was something of a shock. Alex and Rory exchanged confused glances. He took the red ring box out of his inside pocket and threw it for Rory to catch. "Go get her!"

Rory stared at the box like it were a ticking bomb. "But I don't understand. How can I be here?"

"Because you are," the Doctor stated simply. "The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen, and we call them miracles, and that's the theory. Nine-hundred years, never seen one yet. But this would do me... Now get upstairs. She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans. I'm not sure history can take it."


	44. The Pandorica Opens: Three

_This is probably the fastest I've ever written an episode! That's what happens when you love the episode so much. Anyway, this is a rather shorter part as there wasn't too much left to write before the end of the episode. The ending is what I always imagined would happen after the Pandorica closed :)_

_Since I love The Big Bang too, it wouldn't surprise me if I shot through that episode too!_

The Pandorica Opens – Part Three

Alex watched Rory venture up the stairs and out of sight. "Is this a good idea?" he asked the Doctor.

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, yeah, he's Rory. But he's a Roman. He said himself, 'head full of Roman things'. The Romans were pretty violent."

"Yeah, but Rory wasn't. Rory _isn__'__t_. This is a chance, Alex. To go back to how things were!"

Alex realised what the Doctor meant. "What, we're going to reunite them? Start their relationship from scratch?"

The Doctor sighed. "Is that such a bad thing?"

Alex shook his head. "No. It's a good thing. Amelia Pond and Rory the Roman..." Alex was chuckling at the thought when an idea popped into his head. "How's this for a theory. Time is cracked, right? So maybe, when you fall _in_to one, you fall _out_ of another. You get dumped in another part of reality, displaced in time. Which explains why the Angels were so entranced by it, back on the Byzantium.

"Possible. No-one's ever really been able to examine the effects of time energy. Well, they have, technically, but when they do, they get erased from time, so their research never took place."

"Useful,"

The communicator beeped as it received an incoming message. The Doctor pressed a button and put it to his ear. "TARDIS, where is it, hurry up," he said bluntly. "What're you talking about, of course they are... No, but-" He put his hand over one end of the communicator and silently beckoned for Alex to join him. They both put an ear to one end of the machine and listened.

"The soldiers, they can't be real," River said hurriedly, evidently trying not to panic. "They're all here in a storybook, those actual Romans. The ones I sent you, the ones you're with right now."

"So the book modelled their pictures on real Romans. They got them from engravings, accounts, things like that," Alex explained.

"What, all that research for a children's picture book? They're all here, right down to the detail of their faces, all in a book in Amy's house."

"What're you even doing there?" the Doctor whispered harshly.

"It doesn't matter, the TARDIS went wrong. Doctor, how is this possible?"

"Something's using her memories, Amy's memories."

"But how?"

Alex glanced at the Romans nearby. They were expertly handling the Cyber weapons that had been stored in the sentry box.

"You said something had been there?"

"Yes, there's burn marks on the grass outside. Landing patterns."

"If they've been to her house they could've used a psychic residue. Structures can hold memories, that's why houses have ghosts. They could've taken a snapshot of Amy's memories, but why?"

"Doctor... who are those Romans?"

"Projections, or duplicates."

"Doctor..." Alex muttered, eyes widening in horror. "Whatever they are... Rory."

The Doctor's eyes followed suit, widening equally. "Go, get her away from him. Do not suggest that anything's wrong, just say I need to see her. As far as he's concerned, he's Rory. They think they're real, all of them. The perfect disguise. They actually believe their own cover story. Go."

Alex sprinted as fast as he could, dodging the many Romans in the chamber in his haste to get to the stairs. He waited impatiently behind one as he slowly ascended, jumped past him on the final few and looked around. Amy was nowhere to be seen and Rory could be quite easily missed in amongst all the identical Roman uniforms.

"'Scuse me," Alex asked one of the passing soldiers. "The, um... the girl with the red hair, where..?"

The Roman grunted and pointed to two figures outside the circle. "With the Centurion."

Alex ran in the direction the grunting soldier had specified. As he ran, he saw Amy quickly stand from her seat and step away from Rory, standing defensively.

"You have," Rory was saying as Alex slowed and arrived at the scene. "You know you have, it's me! Alex tell her, she knows me!"

Amy wrapped her arms around Alex's waist. "Why am I crying?" she asked him.

"Because you remember me! I came back! Alex, tell her! She's crying because she remembers me!"

"Alex?" Amy asked.

Alex eyed Rory warily, torn. He really, truly seemed to be Rory. If he was a copy, he was a very good one. "Amy, the Doctor... wanted to see you. Downstairs. Says it's not safe up here. Rory, he asked you and the others to... defend."

"You're lying," Rory said after a couple of seconds.

"Yes of course I'm lying, I just need to speak to you," Alex muttered to Rory, leaning in so that Amy couldn't hear.

"Why? What's wr- ARGH!" Rory stopped his sentence short, shouting out in pain. A high-pitched screeching penetrated Alex's ears, causing him to wince and put afinger in each ear. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Amy do the same. "NO!" Rory shouted, doubling over in agony.

"Rory?" Alex asked as the squeal waned, leaving Amy's side and bending down beside him. "Rory, what's wrong?"

"No, please, no! I'm not going! I'M RORY!" Rory roared, screwing up his face as if in concentration, collapsing to the ground on all fours.

"Rory! Rory fight it! It can't take you if you fight it!" Alex found himself shouting to him. This man was Rory Williams, regardless of what someone or something had done to him. At the man's core, he was Rory.

"You two, you need to run," Rory groaned, wincing, eyes tight shut. "Get as far away from here as you can! I'm a thing, I'll kill you! Just GO!"

"Rory! You are not a thing! Come on, fight it!" Alex shouted, seizing Rory's face and turning it towards Amy. "Don't fight it for me, or for you, fight it for her! Fight it for Amy, it can't take you if you fight it! You are Rory! Are you Rory? Tell me you're Rory, tell me who you are!"

"Yes!" Rory replied breathlessly, nodding. "I'm Rory! I'm... I'm Rory! Rory.."

"Williams," said a voice behind Alex. Amy was suddenly beside Alex, taking Rory's hands. "Rory Williams from Leadworth. My boyfriend. How could I ever forget you?"

"Please, you've got to run," Rory begged. "Go, just run, please."

"I'm not going anywhere," Amy assured him, leaning forward and placing her forehead on his. "And neither are you, you are Rory Williams and you are _not_ going anywhere ever again!"

"I'll get the Doctor," Alex said, jumping up and running back towards Stonehenge as fast as his legs would carry him.

"Hurry!" came the call from Amy behind him.

"NO!" Rory shouted. "Alex, they're there!"

Alex ignored him. He reached the staircase and took them two at a time. He came to the bottom and stopped fast. A deep, angry voice was speaking. Alex recognised that voice. He'd remember the voice of that species until the day he died. "The Pandorica is ready!" cried the voice of a Sontaran triumphantly.

"Ready for what?" asked the Doctor's voice. He was invisible behind the giant wall of Roman soldiers standing by the door to the cavern.

"Ready for you." Another voice Alex recognised. A voice that filled him with, if possible, even more dread. Daleks.

A grinding sound resounded around the room. Unable to take the mystery any longer, Alex crept past the Romans at the back of the room and jumped behind one of the nearby stone pillars. He glanced past it at the finally open Pandorica. Inside was a chair. An empty chair. Two Roman soldiers with totally blank faces were each holding one of the Doctor's arms. They dragged him wordlessly towards the Pandorica as he struggled intensely, to no avail.

Alex was powerless to help. He would never be able to singlehandedly overcome everything in the room. As he looked around, he realised that he'd never seen so many species in one room. There were three Daleks at the front – presumably from the new paradigm that the Doctor had described to him, judging by the colours – three Cybermen, a few Sontarans, Silurians, Judoon and various other species that Alex didn't recognise. He directed his eyes back to the Pandorica and met the Doctor's, who had been strapped and cuffed in. Alex shook his head slowly in despair. _What__do__I__do?_he mouthed.

_Nothing_came the reply. Their communication was cut off as the various creatures closed in tighter around the Pandorica, limiting how secretive they could be with one another. The Doctor spoke to them. "Now you lot. Working together. An Alliance... how is that possible?"

"The cracks in the skin of the universe," said the Dalek that seemed to be in charge.

"All reality is threatened," said the Sontaran commander.

"All universes will be deleted," added the Cybercontroller.

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused. "And you've- you've come to me, for help?"

"No!" cried the Sontaran. "_We_ will save the universe! From you!"

"_From_ me?"

"All projections correlate; all evidence concurs. The Doctor will destroy the universe."

"No, no! No, you've got it wrong!"

"The Pandorica was constructed to ensure the safety of the Alliance."

"A scenario was devised from the memories of your companions," the Dalek explained. Alex exhaled in realisation. Never ignore a coincidence, the Doctor had said.

"A trap the Doctor could not resist!" The Sontaran in particular seemed proud of the feat.

"The cracks in time are the work of the Doctor – it is confirmed!"

"No, no, not me, the TARDIS, and I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?"

"Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS."

"River," Alex muttered. He caught himself before he drew attention to his hiding spot.

"Please! Listen to me!" the Doctor begged, close to tears.

"You will be prevented."

"Total event collapse, every sun with supernova at every moment in history! The whole universe will never have existed! _Please_, listen to me!"

"Seal the Pandorica," commanded the Cyber controller.

"No! Please! Listen to me! The TARDIS is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it!" The Doctor looked through the mass of enemies in front of him and at Alex. Alex shook his head again, tears rolling down his cheeks. "LISTEN TO ME!" the Doctor shouted, his final plea still echoing throughout the chamber as the doors to the Pandorica closed with a boom, locking the Doctor in forever.

"The Doctor is imprisoned! Daleks are supreme!" cried the Daleks. "Daleks are supreme! Daleks are supreme!"

"What is this treachery?" asked the Sontaran commander angrily. "The fact that the Doctor is no more is _all_ of our doing. Without us, the Daleks would have been surely defeated. Again."

"Daleks are supreme!" reiterated one Dalek.

"The Pandorica will be returned to the Cybership for storage. Dalek treachery will not be tolerated," the Cybercontroller stated emotionlessly.

"The Pandorica should not leave the planet!" hissed a new voice, the leader of the Silurian party. "We shall take it and bury it within the depths of the Earth."

"The Doctor is the reason the Nestene Consciousness has no home planet," the Romans said as one, apparently being controlled collectively. "I shall take ownership of him."

"The Doctor destroyed Skaro! Daleks will end the Time War with the imprisonment of the lone survivor!"

"He destroyed Mondas. The Doctor will pay penance for his crimes."

"Incorrect! Cyber-foolishness was the cause of the fall of Mondas," one Dalek shot back.

"The Pandorica will return to Sontar!" the Sontaran said, outraged.

"Bo ko ro fo lo po jo ro to," announced one of the Judoon to general bemusement.

"All teleport and transmat beams will be disabled," proclaimed the Supreme Dalek. "Deceitful parties will be exterminated! Exterminate the Alliance!" The three Daleks set about firing in all directions.

Abandoning all secrecy, Alex turned and fled for his life, once more taking the steps two at a time. The dying screams from the many races below filled his ears. He stopped for breath as he came to the top, doubling over with his hands on his knees. It was silent above. With a small whimpering sound coming from somewhere in the distance.

"Amy!" Alex suddenly realised and sprinted back to where he'd left her and Rory.


	45. The Big Bang: One

_Took longer than I expected, this part. Definitely, absolutely on the final straight now though. Just two more chapters and we're done with Series 5! As with The Pandorica Opens, I loved The Big Bang, so I'm hoping I do it justice. Let's hope so :)_

The Big Bang – Part One

"I killed her," Rory whimpered, cradling Amy's limp form in his plastic arms. "I didn't mean to. I couldn't control it."

He and Alex were sat against a rotting log nearby Stonehenge. Alex looked up at the empty sky. "Every sun will supernova. That's what the Doctor said. The universe will have never existed. I think we're probably all dead." It wasn't exactly a comforting notion, but it might've made Rory feel slightly better. Unlikely, Alex thought.

"Great. So the universe ended," Rory said to Amy's un-moving face. "You missed that. In 102 AD. I suppose that means the three of us never get born at all. Twice in my case." He lifted Amy's head so that it would have looked at him, were she still alive. "You would've laughed at that. Please laugh..." he begged, stroking a few stray hairs off of her face. "What do we do?" he asked, turning his head to Alex.

"I don't know," Alex replied truthfully, gazing out at the empty countryside in front of them both. "No Doctor. No Amy. No transport... No universe. Things're looking pretty bleak, Ror'."

"The Doctor said the universe was huge and ridiculous and sometimes there were miracles... I could do with a ridiculous miracle about now..."

Alex sighed and put a comforting arm around Rory's armoured shoulder. Before he could do anything more, what appeared to be a bolt of lightning struck in front of them. When the electrical energy had dissipated, the Doctor stood in its place. He held a mop in his hands and an unusual red hat on his head. "Ah! There you are, the two of you! Listen, she's not dead."

"W- what're you-" Alex stuttered in surprise.

Well, she _is_ dead, but it's not the end of the world. Actually, it's the end of the universe." He glanced at the mop in his hands in shock. "Oh, no! Hang on." He pressed a few buttons on a strap on his wrist. Lightning struck again and the Doctor disappeared.

"Doctor? Doctor?" Rory shouted out.

The Doctor reappeared with another bolt, sans mop. "You two need to get me out of the Pandorica," he said, reaching into his jacket pocket.

"But you're not in the Pandorica," Rory pointed out.

"Yes I am. Well I'm not now, but I was back then. Well, back now from your point of view, which is back then from my point of view. Time travel, you can't keep it straight in your head."

"How did you escape?" Alex asked incredulously.

"I didn't escape, I was released. I'll leave you two to work out who released me. Here's a clue." He handed Alex the Sonic Screwdriver. "It's easy to open from the outside, just point and press. Now go." He pressed a couple of buttons and disappeared again.

Alex stared at the Screwdriver. He glanced at Rory and was met with a similarly confused expression.

"Oh, er, and when you're done," the Doctor continued, having rematerialised, "leave my Screwdriver in her top pocket. Good luck!" He vanished once more.

"Done what?" Rory shouted at nothing.

After a minute or two of convincing Rory that it was okay to leave Amy's body alone, he agreed to accompany Alex down below. He lay Amy down gracefully so that she could have been asleep and then removed his cloak. He covered Amy with it as his eyes began to fill with tears. "She told me what happened," he said, glancing up at Alex as he straightened the cloak. "Between you two. As she was dying."

"What d'you mean?" Alex asked in confusion. "Nothing happened."

"Exactly. You refused to... well, the phrase she used was 'be a boyfriend'. I mean, we both know what that would entail," he chuckled sadly. "Thank you."

"I remembered you," Alex said simply. "To me, you'd still existed. Would've been disrespectful to your memory."

Rory laughed sarcastically. "What memory?"

"C'mon," Alex murmured, placing a hand on Rory's shoulder and encouraging him to stand. When he did so, Rory turned and pulled Alex into a tight hug.

"Thank you," he repeated. "I won't forget this."

Alex pulled away and led him back towards Stonehenge. "I'd say 'forget about it', but..." he smiled, tailing off.

He stopped at the top of the staircase, listening. All seemed quiet. The Daleks had probably finished their extermination and teleported themselves back to their ship. They might even have taken the Pandorica with them.

"This might not be pretty," Alex whispered, recalling the many life forms that had been in the chamber, as well as the efficiency with which the Daleks usually dispatched their enemies.

He crept slowly down the stairs, ready to turn back at the slightest indication that danger was still afoot. He received none. They reached the bottom and looked around. The chamber was in total darkness, other than one or two still-flickering torches at the far end. Rory jogged back up the stairs and returned a couple of seconds later with two more torches, one of which he handed to Alex. They walked slowly through the stones. There were no bodies of any kind to be seen. However, there were shadows. Shapes of humanoid beings, caught screaming their final screams. Alex held his torch over one of them. It was one of the Roman soldiers. It had its arms in the air, a sword in one hand. But it was stone. Like it had been fossilised. It also seemed to have sunk into the ground; its legs had completely disappeared.

"What happened to them?" Rory asked, looking at a similar Roman.

"I don't know," Alex admitted. "I've never seen anything like it... Maybe he has." Alex walked forward and held up the Screwdriver to the Pandorica. Rory took up a position beside him. They looked at each other, both slightly nervous. Rory nodded his encouragement. Alex pressed the button.

"How did you do that?" The Pandorica had opened once more. The Doctor, wrist and neck restraints no longer in place stared at them both in shock.

"You gave us the Sonic?" Rory pointed out.

The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an identical Screwdriver. "No I didn't."

"Well, _a_ you gave us it," Alex amended. "Future you... or alternate, or..."

Alex stopped talking as the Doctor slowly exited the Pandorica. He held out the original Screwdriver to Alex's and touched them together slightly. A banging sound caused Alex and Rory to jump as sparks flew from both Screwdrivers.

"Temporal energy," the Doctor explained. "The same Screwdriver at different points in its own timestream, which means it _was_ me who gave it to you. Me from the future. I've got a future, that's nice!" He glanced over Alex's shoulder at something which caused his face to fall. "That's not."

Alex and Rory followed his line of sight to see a Dalek, fossilised in the same style that the Roman soldiers had been. "Yeah," Rory agreed. "What are they?"

"History has collapsed. Whole races have been deleted from existence. These are just like after images. Echoes. Fossils in time; the footprints of the never were."

"Care to explain a bit more?" Alex asked.

"You heard what I said to the Alliance, Alex. Total event collapse. The universe literally never happened."

"So how can we be here?" Rory asked uncertainly as Alex frowned a sceptic frown. What's keeping us safe?"

"Nothing. Eye of the storm, that's all. We're the last light to go out."

"How long have we got?"

"Amy..." the Doctor muttered. He turned to face two nervous faces. "Where's Amy?"

"I'll tell him," Alex mumbled to Rory, trying to save his feelings.

"No," Rory said aloud so that the Doctor could hear. "This is my fault." He led the way back up the staircase to Stonehenge and across to where Amy's lifeless body lay. "I killed her," Rory said, voice trembling despite his macho bravado.

The Doctor knelt down and pulled aside the cover Rory had put over her. "Oh Rory..." He rubbed his face in despair as Alex joined him, sitting beside Amy on the cold, hard ground. Alex stroked her hair softly, welling up himself.

"Doctor, what am I?"

"You're a Nestene duplicate. A lump of plastic with delusions of humanity." He scanned Amy and checked the readings, unproductively.

"But I'm Rory now! Whatever was happening, it's stopped, I'm Rory!"

"That's software talking," the Doctor shot back brutally.

Rory tried a different tact. "Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?"

"Yep," the Doctor said retracting the Sonic's claws and standing up, replacing it in his pocket. "Probably, if I had the time." He uncaringly stepped over Amy's body and strode forward, his back to the three of them.

"The _time_?" Rory shouted as he passed.

"Did that box make you even more heartless than you can be already?" Alex asked angrily, jumping up and standing beside Rory confrontationally.

"All of creation has just been wiped from the sky. Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the people who never lived? Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe."

Rory reached over and tapped the Doctor's shoulder, who turned around to be met with Rory's plastic fist in his face. "SHE IS TO ME!" Rory bellowed as the Doctor dropped to the floor like a lead balloon. Alex raised an eyebrow in appreciation.

The Doctor jumped up and laughed. "Welcome back Rory Williams!" he cried, cracking his jaw back into place. "Sorry. Had to be sure. Hell of a gun arm you're packing there." He walked back to Amy and bent down beside her. "Right. We need to get her downstairs. And take that look of your plastic face; you're getting married in the morning."

Alex and Rory glanced at each other. Alex was relieved to see that Rory's face reflected what Alex felt – sheer bewilderment.

"No, hold on," the Doctor said, straightening up and pointing at Alex accusingly. "Heartless? Me? Anyway, grab a leg each."

The Doctor led the way back down the stairs, holding Amy under the arms whilst Alex and Rory followed, grudgingly carrying a boot each. Rory could have hoisted her up on his own, which would have made the trip far easier – and more dignified – but the Doctor was having none of it. This also meant that the three of them had only the light from the Pandorica to guide them, giving rise to numerous trips and stumbles. A few stubbed toes later, they arrived. The Doctor ordered them both to drop Amy's legs and he dragged her into place. He put her into the Pandorica and positioned her so that the neck, wrist and leg restraints fit perfectly.

"So you have got a plan then?" Rory checked as the Doctor busied himself.

"Bit of a plan, yeah."

"And we can save her?" Alex asked.

"Definitely. We don't just want to, we need to. Memories are more powerful than you think, and Amy's memories are more powerful than anyone's. Grew up with a time crack in her wall, the universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for. Like you Rory. Not just your face, but your heart, your soul." He placed his fingers onto Amy's temples and closed his eyes in concentration. "I'm leaving her a message for when she wakes up so she knows what's happening. Alex, Screwdriver," he said when he'd finished, sticking his hand out behind him. Alex wordlessly handed him the future-Doctor's Sonic, which he placed into Amy's top pocket as instructed. He then stepped back and sealed the Pandorica once more, leaving Amy inside.

"Whoa, whoa, what're you doing?" Rory cried.

"I'm saving her. This box is the ultimate prison, you can't even escape it by dying; it forces you to stay alive."

"But she's already dead,"

"No, she's mostly dead. The Pandorica can stasis-lock her that way. Now all it needs is a scan of her living DNA and it'll restore her."

"Where's it gonna get that?"

The Doctor checked his watch. "In about two thousand years."

"It's going to get the DNA to cure her from herself?" Alex enquired. The Doctor nodded. "Huge paradox?"

"Alex, the whole universe now never existed. I think we can afford to cause a paradox or two, don't you? The powers that be have got a few bigger problems on their hands. Well, actually, they haven't, because there never were any powers that be. But yes, the Pandorica will get a scan from little Amelia's DNA, cure our Amy and then we'll finish saving the universe."

"Wait, hold on," Rory said, not quite getting it. "She's going to be in that box for two thousand years?"

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed, bending down beside it and picking something out of the rubble. "But we're taking the shortcut. River's Vortex Manipulator. Rubbish way to time travel, but the universe is tiny now, we'll be fine."

"The future's still there then? Our world?"

"A version of it, not quite the one you know. Earth, alone in the sky. Let's go and have a look." He held out the Vortex Manipulator in front of him and looked at Alex and Rory expectantly in turn. "Put your hands there."

"What about Amy?" Alex asked, nodding towards the Pandorica.

"Oh, don't worry. She'll be safe."

"But anything could happen to it," Alex pointed out.

"Yeah, but no-one can get in, which is the important thing."

"_You_ got in there," Rory said accusingly.

"Yeah, well, there's only one of me. I counted."

Rory shook his head. "Alex is right. This box needs a guard. I killed the last one."

"No, Rory. No. Don't even think about it."

"You can't."

"You said, Alex, anything could happen to it! Two thousand years, anything could happen. We could lose it, never find it again."

"I can scan for it, take a reading. It'll be fine," the Doctor assured him.

"Amy'll be all alone."

"She won't feel it!"

"You bet she won't!"

"Two thousand years, Rory, you won't even sleep, you'll be conscious every second. It would drive you _mad_!"

"Rory, we don't even know if you'd last two thousand years," Alex reasoned. "How long do Nestenes last?"

"Varies," the Doctor muttered.

Rory stared at the box. "Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn't be safer."

"Rory, you-"

"Answer me!" Rory ordered, raising his voice.

The Doctor sighed. "Yes," he admitted eventually. "Obviously."

"Then how could I leave her?" he said longingly.

"Why do you have to be so... _human_?"

"Because right now, I'm not," he said as if it were obvious. He turned his back on the Doctor and Alex and took up a position by the Pandorica.

The Doctor glanced at Alex and shook his head in despair. He then pressed a couple of buttons on the Manipulator and held it out to Alex, who apprehensively took grasp of it. "Listen to me! This is the last bit of advice you're gonna get in a very long time. You're living plastic, but like I said, you're not immortal, I've no idea how long you'll last. _And_ you're not indestructible. Stay away from heat, and radio signals when they come along. You can't heal, or repair yourself. Any damage is permanent. So for God's sake, however bored you get, stay out of-"

Crack

"-trouble."

Their surroundings had warped. Alex found himself in a high-ceilinged room with velvet rope blocking off models. This could only be a museum. At the far end of the corridor stood the open Pandorica and, in front of it, the two Amy Ponds he knew, fourteen years apart – one a child and one an adult.

"Two of you!" the Doctor cried.

"This hurts," Alex muttered, rubbing his head and taking in the picture before him.

"_Exterminate_!" cried a robotic voice behind him. Alex swivelled on the spot to see a fossilised Dalek rolling towards him in earnest.

"That would hurt more," Alex reasoned.

"_Weapon__systems__restoring_!"

"Come along Ponds!" the Doctor said, grabbing both Amys' hands and running. Older Amy seized Alex by the scruff of the neck and pulled him along too.

"_Exterminate_!"

The four of them ran behind the Pandorica and through a doorway into a small room than turned out to be nothing more than a museum exhibit. The Doctor stumbled back out of it again, tripping over one of the manikins.

"What're we doing?" Amy asked desperately.

"Well, we're running into a dead end where I'm gonna have a brilliant plan that basically involves not being in on." The Doctor took the hat from one of the manikins as it fell. Getting a proper look at it, Alex saw that it was the one the future-Doctor had been wearing. It was a fez, a red hat from old Turkey.

"What's going on?" called an authoritative voice from the far end of the corridor, light from a torch shining on the Pandorica.

"Get out of here!" the Doctor called to the guard. "Go, just run."

"_Drop__the__device_," the Dalek commanded, turning to face the security guard and moving sinisterly towards him.

"It's not a weapon," the Doctor told it as the guard began to back away nervously. "Scan it, it's not a weapon and you don't have the power to waste."

"_Scans__indicate__intruder__un-armed_."

"Do you think?" said an impossible voice. The guard dropped his torch to the floor. The front of his right hand flipped forward as if on hinges to reveal a gun, concealing within. He fired three laser shots at the Dalek.

"_Vision__impaired!__Vision__impair_..." The Dalek's voice faded away and died as it powered down.

"No way," Alex muttered, realising who the guard was. The four of them ran out from behind the safety of the Pandorica as the Doctor scanned the Dalek.

"Amy!" Rory cried in shock.

"Rory,"

The two ran to each other and embraced tightly, both beginning to cry

"I'm sorry!" Rory grovelled. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, it just happened!"

"Oh shut up," Amy said, pulling him into a passionate kiss, promptly shutting him up.

"Yeah, shut up!" the Doctor agreed, "'Cos we've gotta go, come on!"

"Their moment," Alex muttered, grasping the Doctor by the arm and dragging him away from the two of them as they kissed again.

"I waited!" Rory whimpered as Amy caressed his face lovingly. "Two thousand years, I waited for you!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and checked the readings on the Sonic. "Technically dead, or it should be, it's been dormant for nearly two thousand years." He glanced back at Amy and Rory, still locked in a kiss. "Don't they surface for air at all?" he muttered to Alex to the side.

"Stop watching!" Alex reprimanded.

"Well someone didn't get out much for two thousand years," the Doctor concluded.

Amelia tugged at the Doctor's sleeve. "I'm thirsty, can I get a drink?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, it's all mouths today, isn't it?" the Doctor said cheekily, stuffing the fez onto Amelia's head, covering her forehead, eyes and half her nose. She took it off and forced it back into the Doctor's hands. The man himself however was preoccupied, gazing at the Pandorica, deep in thought. "The light!" the Doctor mumbled eventually. "The light from the Pandorica, it must've hit the Dalek."

The Dalek began to shudder. Its eyestalk twitched and a few metallic clunking noises sounded as its gun arm began to tremble.

"Out!" the Doctor shouted, backing away and taking Amelia's hand. "Out, out, out!"

The five of them piled out of the door at the end of the corridor as the Dalek continued to make ominous repairing sounds. The Doctor Soniced it shut.

"So. Two thousand years. How did you do?" the Doctor asked Rory conversationally as they barricaded the door.

"Kept out of trouble,"

The Doctor ooh'ed his appreciation before stopping and looking at the fez in his hands in confusion. He glanced at the others before placing it on his head, as though he didn't know what else to do with it. "How?" he asked as he rushed to a nearby storage cupboard and grabbed a mop from within.

"Unsuccessfully. The mop!" Rory cried, stopping the Doctor in his tracks.

"Yes!" Alex agreed, making the same connection as Rory, the bizarre vision of the Doctor zapping into being before them swimming back into his memory.

"That's how you looked all those years ago when you gave us the Sonic,"

"Oh! Well. No time to lose then." He tapped on the Vortex Manipulator a few times and then disappeared in a bolt of lightning. He reappeared a few seconds later and slid the end of the mop through the door handles to the Dalek Room.

"How can he do that? Is he magic?" Amelia asked, looking up at Amy, Alex and Rory in turn.

No-one replied as the Doctor disappeared again. He appeared again a second or two later. "Right then. Let's go." He ran through the rest of them and began to climb a nearby set of stone stairs before stopping. "Wait! Now I don't have the Sonic, I just gave it to Rory two thousand years ago." He travelled back in time again. He soon rematerialised and rummaged through the pockets of Amy's jacket, eventually producing the Sonic Screwdriver. "Right then. Off we go. Nope!" he stopped again and jogged back down the steps, bending down to Amelia's level. "How did you know to come here?" She reached into her coat pocket and handed the Doctor a few scraps of paper. "Ah! My handwriting!" The Doctor took a pen out of his own pocket and took a leaflet and post-it note from a welcome desk. Pen in mouth, lightning struck once more and he was gone.

"Does anyone else's head hurt?" Rory murmured after a few seconds.

"There you go, drink up," the Doctor said when he reappeared, handing Amelia a cup of soft drink.

"What is that?" Amy demanded as the Doctor ran past her and began back up the stairs. "How are you doing that?"

"Vortex Manipulator," the Doctor stated proudly. "Cheap and nasty time travel, very bad for you. I'm trying to give it up."

"Where are we going?"

"The roof!"

A crackling noise sounded behind. They all turned to look as the Vortex Manipulator's lightning struck and a second Doctor appeared at the top of the stairs. He looked ragged, his clothes torn and his hair ruffled. He also looked somewhat singed and was smoking slightly. He wobbled on the spot for a moment before collapsing and tumbling down the stairs. He crashed to a stop at the bottom as the conscious Doctor dove to his side and scanned him.

"Doctor, it's you," Rory pointed out. "How can it be you?"

"Doctor, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," the Doctor said under his breath, examining the man's face. "Me from the future..."

Suddenly, the future-Doctor regained consciousness and grabbed the present-Doctor by the shoulders. He lifted himself on his shoulders and whispered something hurriedly into the present-Doctor's ear that Alex couldn't hear. He then collapsed back into the ground from exhaustion and didn't move again.

"What did he say?" Alex asked quietly.

"I don't know, not yet. Couldn't make it out, too garbled..."

"Are you... I mean is he... is he dead?"

The Doctor was visibly shaken. "What? Dead? Yes, yes. Of course he's dead. Right! I've got twelve minutes! That's good." He stepped over himself and jogged to the top of the stairs.

"Twelve minutes to live? How is that good?"

"Oh you can do loads in twelve minutes; suck a mint, buy a sledge, have a fast bath. Come on, the roof!"

"We can't leave you here dead!" Rory cried as the Doctor turned to leave. He stuck his head back around the corner again.

"Oh good! Are you in charge now? So tell me, what are we going to do about Amelia?"

Amy, Alex and Rory all exchanged confused glances before looking back as one at where Amelia had been standing. All that remained was a discarded drink cup lying on the floor, and nothing else to suggest that there had ever been anyone there.

"Amelia?" Rory called out into the silent museum. No reply.

"There is no Amelia," the Doctor explained. "From now on, there never was. History is still collapsing."

"But how can I still be here if she's not?" Amy asked. A very good question too, Alex thought.

"You're an anomaly, we all are. We're all just hanging on at the eye of the storm, but the eye is closing. And if we don't do something fast, reality will never have happened. Today, just dying is a result! Now come on!" The Doctor arrived back at the top of the stairs and strode confidently to the right, despite not having a clue where he was going.

"He won't die," Amy said assuredly. "Time can be rewritten, he'll find a way."

"Is he even dead?" Alex asked Rory, the most medically-aware of the three of them.

"Well, the Sonic never lies," he pointed out.

Alex smiled sadly. "No. But he does."

As Alex watched the Doctor's unmoving form, he could have sworn he saw a smirk flash across his face.

"Move it! Come on!" the Doctor's voice floated from up above, distracting Alex. When he looked again, the future-Doctor's face was as motionless as ever. Rory removed his jacket and laid it over the corpse before the three of them slowly ascended the stairs and followed the Doctor's path.


	46. The Big Bang: Two

_Bloody__hell.__I__'__ve__hit_and_exceeded__two__hundred__reviews.__Two__hundred!__Thank__you__all__for__every__single__one__of__them!_

_Now then. Back to business. This part may the most important part of this whole fic so far..._

The Big Bang – Part Two

"History really is messed up," Alex laughed. He read the plaque of a nearby museum exhibit. "Look at this one. 'This sceptre was taken from the ruins of Machu Picchu, the final resting place of the Holy Roman Emperor, Tutankhamun, circa 1482'."

"I met him a couple of times," Rory mentioned. "Nice bloke."

"And this one," Amy said from nearby. "'The skull of...' Oh my God! This is a real skull! 'The skull of Princess Katherine of Denmark – Karen to her court.' Hey, Alex. If history's messed up, maybe this is your sister," she joked.

"That reminds me," Alex said as he took his phone from his pocket, choosing to ignore Amy's slightly morbid statement.

"This isn't a time for personal calls," the Doctor called from a map on the wall of the museum. He was trying to work out how exactly they were supposed to get to the roof.

"Tell you what; I'll hang up once you've found the way." He quickly typed in the number he'd reach Karen at.

"You have dialled an incorrect number. Please check you have dialled correctly and try again. If you have dialled correctly, then this number is not in use." said a female automated voice. Odd. He tried again. Nothing. Making a split-second decision, he punched in a different number and pressed call. Alex breathed a sigh of relief as the phone began to ring.

"Alex," Daisy greeted when she eventually answered her phone.

"Hey Dais'. I need you to do me a favour."

Daisy chuckled. "I'm great, Alex. Thanks for asking. And how are you?"

"Yeah, fine, good, whatever. I need a favour,"

"Yes sir. How may I be of assistance?"

"I've been trying to ring Karen, but I can't get through. Could you drop round after work, check up on her?"

"Who's Karen?"

Alex frowned. "My sister?"

"Alex, you don't have a sister. I'm kinda busy, can I call you back?"

"Hilton! What have I told you about personal calls?" called an irritated voice in the background.

"Sorry sir. Listen, Alex, I've got to go."

"No, wait!"

"What?"

"Karen Fleur Morgan. My ten-year-old sister. Lives with my granddad. You know his address, just pop by after work an-"

"Alex, we were together for over three years. I think I'd know if you had a sister. I really need to go, I'll call you later." She hung up.

Alex slowly put his phone back into his pocket in shock. "Karen's gone," he muttered. The Doctor was still staring at the map, a frustrated look on his face. Amy and Rory were holding each other, looking at the bizarre exhibits. No-one heard him. He strode past Amy and Rory towards the Doctor and grabbed him by the arm, spinning him slightly aggressively away from the map so they were face to face.

"You alright?" he asked casually.

"She's gone. Karen. My sister never existed." He grasped the Doctor by the shoulders and pleaded with him. "She was my last _vestige_ of family left in existence. _Please_ tell me you have a plan."

The Doctor smiled. "Of course I have a plan. Have I ever given you reason to doubt me?" Alex held his gaze, straight-faced. The Doctor, seeing that his usual light-hearted whimsy wasn't going to suffice, became equally serious. "I promise. We can land this. All of us, together. Okay?" Alex nodded slowly. The Doctor smiled and pulled him into a hug. "Good man. Now, come on. The roof."

Surprisingly, they didn't get lost again on their way to the roof. The Doctor now seemed to know exactly where they were going. He led them through a door into a far less impressive room than the rest of the museum, possibly where the cleaners and maintenance people spent their time when they weren't cleaning or maintaining. They went up a metal staircase and up a short ladder before coming to a trapdoor in the ceiling. The Doctor pushed it open and climbed out as early morning sunlight streamed inside.

"What, it's morning already?" Amy asked as Rory helped her on to the roof. "How did that happen?"

"History is shrinking," the Doctor explained, looking out at the city spread out in front of them. "Is anybody listening to me? The universe is collapsing. We don't have much time left." He leapt up onto a second hatch nearby and Soniced a satellite dish.

"What're you doing?" Rory asked.

"Looking for the TARDIS."

"But the TARDIS exploded!" Rory exclaimed.

"Then I'm looking for an exploding TARDIS!" He yanked the dish off its bracket and hauled it to the edge of the building.

"I don't understand," Amy admitted. "The TARDIS blew up and took the universe with it, but why would it do that? How?"

"And I still don't understand how Vincent knew about it; isn't this a new universe now?" Alex added.

"Good questions for another day," the Doctor said, disregarding them. "The question for now is: Total event collapse means that every star in the universe never happened. Not one single one of them ever shone. So, if all the stars that ever were are gone then what..." he turned and pointed the Sonic at the colossal burning Sun hanging in the sky, "... is that? Like I said, I'm looking for an exploding TARDIS..."

"But that's the sun!" cried Rory.

"Is it? Well, here's the noise that sun is making right now." He held up the satellite dish and aimed it at the sun. He pointed the Sonic at the base of it, activated it and waited. The sound of the TARDIS engines, distorted somewhat, filled their ears. "That's my TARDIS burning up..." the Doctor said despairingly. "That's what's been keeping the Earth warm."

"Doctor, there's something else," Rory said, concentrating on something or other. "There's a voice."

"Is there?" Alex asked doubtfully, straining his ears to hear something new.

"I can't hear anything," Amy agreed.

"Trust the plastic."

The Doctor extended the Sonic's claws and altered the feedback of the dish. Slowly but surely, a familiar voice overlaid the sound of the TARDIS' engines.

"_I'm sorry my love... I'm sorry my love... I'm sorry my love..."_

"But that's River. Doctor, how can she be up there?"

"Must be like a recording or something,"

"She was flying the TARDIS when it exploded," Alex recalled. "It's like an... after-effect, an imprint?"

"No, no, of course," the Doctor said frustrated, screwing up his face. "The emergency protocols! The TARDIS has sealed off the control room and put her into a time loop to save her. She is right at the heart of the explosion..."

The three of them fell silent at this. Eventually, Alex spoke up. "Well how do we get her out? We can't get _in_to a time loop! That's why it's a 'loop'."

"Most of the time, no, you're right, you can't."

"Most of the time?"

"Well, most of the time, it's not _me_ trying to get into the time loop." He pressed a couple of buttons on the Vortex Manipulator and disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

"_I'm sorry my love... I'm sorry my love... I'm sorr-"_

"_Hi honey... I'm home."_

"_And what sort of time d'you call this?"_

Seconds later, the Doctor reappeared with River on his arm.

"Amy! Alex!" River exclaimed as they turned in surprise to see her. "And the plastic centurion?"

"It's okay, he's on our side," the Doctor reassured her.

"_Really_? I dated a Nestene duplicate once. Swappable heads! Did keep things fresh. Right then, I have questions. But number one is this." She turned to the Doctor and looked at him in disgust. "What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?"

"It's a fez, I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."

River and Amy shared a short look of understanding. Amy seized the fez off of the Doctor's head and threw it over the top of the building. River completed the manoeuvre by drawing her gun and blasting the fez to smithereens

"Exterminate!" said a robotic voice. The fez explosion seemed to have attracted the fossilised Dalek as it rose ominously, hovering over the edge of the building.

"Go! Move, move!" the Doctor cried.

He picked up the satellite dish again and used it as a shield as the Dalek opened fire on them. Alex yanked open the trapdoor and ushered Amy and Rory back inside. River pushed him in next, keeping her gun aimed at the Dalek. She clambered inside as the Doctor dove in afterwards. The Doctor closed the hatch and set about deadlocking it with the Sonic, taking his time in doing so.

"Doctor, come on!" River commanded, keeping her gun trained on the hatch.

"Shh!" the Doctor whispered. He listened to the noises from outside until they died down. "It's moving away. Finding another way in. It needs to restore its power before it can attack again. Now, that means we've got exactly," he stopped and checked his watch, "four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity."

"How do you know?"

"Because that's when it's due to kill me."

"Kill you? What d'you mean, kill you?"

"Oh shut up, never mind!" he said happily, leading them down the stairs and back into the museum. "How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back. How?"

"You said the light from the Pandorica," Rory reminded him.

"It's not a light, it's a restoration field. But never mind! Call it a light. That light brought Amy back, restored her. But how could it bring back a Dalek when the Daleks have never existed?"

"The, uh, the Daleks said the Pandorica was built to ensure their safety," Alex thought frantically. "So they... made it so..." He ran out of ideas.

"No, not that. Good thought, but no."

"So tell us," Amy said simply. She and Alex glanced at each other before turning away and smirking. They both knew the Doctor too well.

True to form, the Doctor went on to explain. "When the TARDIS blew up, it caused a total event collapse – a time explosion. And that explosion blasted every atom in every moment of the universe. Except..?"

"Except... inside the Pandorica?" Amy realised.

"The perfect prison! And inside it, perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was. In theory, you could extrapolate the whole universe from a single one of them, like cloning a body from a single cell, and we've got the bumper family pack!"

"Nope," Rory frowned, shaking his head. "Nope. Too fast. Not getting it."

"The box contains a memory of the universe as it was. The light transmits the memory, and that's how we're gonna do it."

"Do what?"

"Relight the fire. Reboot the universe. Come on!" he grinned and strode off confidently.

"Doctor, you're being completely ridiculous!" River shouted after him. "The Pandorica partially restored one Dalek. If it can't even reboot a single life form properly, how's it going to reboot the whole of reality?"

"What if we give it a moment of infinite power? What if we can transmit the light from the Pandorica to every particle of space and time simultaneously?"

"Well that would be lovely dear, but we can't, because it's completely impossible!"

"Ah, no, y'see, it's not," the Doctor replied happily, tapping River on the nose. "It's _almost_ completely impossible. One spark is all we need."

For _what_?"

"Big Bang Two! Now, listen-"

Before he could continue, the Doctor shouted out in pain and surprise as a Dalek beam struck him square in the back. He was illuminated as his skeleton was put entirely on show for a split second and he fell to the floor.

"_Exterminate!__Exterminate!__Exterminate!__" _the Dalek screeched as it rolled down the corridor towards them.

Rory pushed Amy to safety. River and Alex dropped to the floor to the Doctor's side.

"You two, for God's sake, get back now!" Rory shouted. He aimed his hand at the Dalek and fired. The Dalek slowed and powered down again.

"Doctor, Doctor, it's me. It's River, can you hear me?" River asked hysterically, her voice shaking.

"Doctor, look at me," Alex said forcefully, holding the Doctor's face in his hands. "Doctor!" he said, louder as the Doctor began to shake and his eyes drooped. "Don't go, don't you even dare. I've lost everyone else, I'm not losing you too, don't you dare!"

The Doctor exploded in a crack of lightning. He'd used the Vortex Manipulator. Alex and River jumped back in surprise, momentarily blinded by the light.

"Where'd he go?" River muttered. "Damn it, he could be anywhere!"

"He went downstairs," Amy said, shaking her head miserably. "Twelve minutes ago."

"Show me!" River ordered aggressively.

"River... he died."

"_Systems__restoring.__You__will__be__exterminated_."

"We've got to move. That thing's coming back to life." Rory still had his hand pointed at the Dalek.

"You three go to the Doctor. I'll be right with you," River said emotionlessly. She said it with such authority that none of them went against her command. Backing away from the Dalek, they headed back towards the ground floor.

"_You__will__be__exterminated!__" _came the Dalek's voice, echoing all the way along the cavernous corridor.

T H E B I G B A N G

Alex, Amy and Rory jogged back to where they had left the Doctor's body twelve minutes previously. They all came to a juddering halt at the top of the stone staircase near the entrance to the museum. At the bottom, discarded in a heap was Rory's security guard jacket that he had lain over the Doctor's dead body. Said body was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" Alex asked no-one in particular. "He's moved."

"How can he have moved? He was dead!" Rory side-stepped down the steps quickly. "Doctor?" he called. No reply. "DOCTOR?"

"But he _was_ dead," Amy said emphatically.

"Who told you that?" River asked, striding down the stairs and ignoring the jacket completely.

"He did!"

"Rule One: The Doctor lies."

"Where's the Dalek?"

"It died."

River led them back into the chamber that housed the Pandorica. Even from the far end of the room, they could see something was different. Things had been knocked over from the few exhibits that still remained. The velvet rope around the Pandorica had been thrown to one side and there, sitting slumped in the chair of the Pandorica was the unconscious Doctor.

"Doctor!" Amy cried as they all sprinted towards him as fast as they could.

River and Alex reached the Doctor first. River gently took his head in her hands and picked it up, looking at it nervously. Alex placed a hand on the left of the Doctor's chest, and then his right.

"Both working," he concluded.

"Why did he tell us he was dead?" Rory asked.

"We were a diversion," Amy realised. "As long as the Dalek was chasing us, he could work down here."

River spoke softly to the Doctor, attempting to rouse him as Alex backed away from the Pandorica and joined Amy and Rory. They looked up through the glass ceiling. The sky was slowly turning an ominous blood red. The exploding TARDIS-sun was burning brighter, larger and louder.

"What's happening?"

"Reality's collapsing... it's speeding up. Look at this room." River and the others looked back into the previous chamber and saw that the vast majority of the exhibits had totally disappeared, as though they had never existed...

"Where'd everything go?" Amy asked.

"Why would you make a museum exhibit of something that never happened? Never existed?" Alex asked her.

River turned back to the Doctor and seized his face, more violently this time. "Doctor. What were you doing? Tell us. _Doctor_!"

Eventually, he began to stir. His eyes flicked open half way and he took a deep breath. With seemingly herculean effort, he murmured three words: "Big... Bang... Two..."

"The Big Bang... that's the beginning of the universe, right?" said Rory.

"What, and Big Bang Two's the bang that brings us back? Is that what you mean?"

Slowly, and very slightly, the Doctor nodded, closing his eyes again.

River's eyes widened and she exhaled in shock. "The TARDIS is still burning," she realised, turning to tell the other three. "It's exploding at every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire..."

"Then what?"

"Then, let there be light. The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once... just like he said."

"And that would work? That would bring everything back?"

"A Restoration Field powered by an exploding TARDIS, happening at every moment in history... Oh, that's brilliant. It might even work." She fumbled in the Doctor's pocket until she found the Sonic. She scanned the Vortex Manipulator, which had wires sticking out of it and leading into the body of the Pandorica. "He's wired the Vortex Manipulator to the rest of the box."

"Why?"

"So he can take it with him. He's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion."

"He can't," Alex said with conviction. "There's another way; there's always another way!"

The Doctor stirred again, taking deep breaths between words. "No... one... else..."

"He's wired it up so it only works for him," River told Alex with frustration. "He's made the Manipulator isomorphic."

"Oh, he would..." Alex tailed off, putting his face in his hands. Knowing he would be of little or no help, he left River and the Doctor to it and joined Amy and Rory in staring out of the window at the bleak expanse laid out before it...

T H E B I G B A N G

All seemed to be set. The tinkering and banging noises emitting from inside the Pandorica were becoming fewer and farther between. A few minutes later, River came around from behind the Pandorica. "Amy. Alex. He wants to speak to you both."

"At the same time?"

River nodded.

Amy pulled out of her embrace with Rory but continued to stay close to him. "So what happens here? Big Bang Two. What happens to us?"

"We all wake up where we ought to be. None of this ever happens and we don't remember it."

"River... tell me he comes back too."

River smiled sadly. "The Doctor will be at the heart of the explosion."

"So?"

"So all the cracks in time will close. But he'll be on the wrong side, trapped in the nether space, the void between the worlds. All memory of him will be purged from the universe. He will never have been born. Now please. He wants to talk to you both before he goes."

"Come on," Alex whispered to Amy, pulling her into a tight hug and blinking back tears. "Together."

Hand-in-hand, they slowly edged towards the Pandorica. As the inside came into view, Alex felt Amy take a deep breath as she saw how battered the Doctor really looked. He was fully conscious now, but weary-looking. Tired.

"How you doin'?" Alex asked sympathetically.

The Doctor smiled. "Th... thank you," he stammered.

"What for?"

"For everything. For being here. With me."

"Any time," Alex assured him. "Now... Who first?"

The Doctor closed his eyes, deep in thought. Eventually, "Amy." Alex backed out of the Pandorica and nodded at Amy encouragingly. She stepped closer. "I need you to listen too though. It's important," the Doctor muttered to Alex. He turned back to Amy.

"What's up?" Amy asked, tears forming in her eyes.

The Doctor did not reply at first, seemingly formulating in his head what he wanted to say "Amy Pond... The Girl Who Waited. All night in your garden. Was it worth it?"

"Shut up. Of course it was." She blindly held out a hand behind her, which Alex took and squeezed comfortingly.

The Doctor nodded. "You asked me why I was taking you and I said 'no reason. You deserve a break'. Nothing more."

"Scottish girl in the English village, you said," Amy recalled.

"I was lying."

"I know. It doesn't matter."

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, before wincing in pain and stopping. "It does, so much. It's why I'm doing this. Amy, your house was too big. That biiig... empty house. Just you." Alex recalled his bathroom trip in Amelia's house, so very long ago. He remembered noticing how many of the rooms upstairs were empty, un-used...

"And Aunt Sharon," Amy added lamely.

"Where were your mum and dad? Where was everyone who lived in that big house?"

"I lost my mum and dad."

"How? What happened to them? Where did they go?" he whispered.

"I... I don't..." Amy faltered, frowning.

"It's okay, it's okay. Don't panic. It's not your fault."

"I don't even remember," Amy realised, subconsciously squeezing Alex's hand really rather tightly.

"There was a crack in time in the wall of your bedroom... and it's been eating away at your life for a long time now. Amy Pond... all alone... the girl who didn't make sense... how could I resist?"

Amy's tears were coming thick and fast now. "But how could I just forget?"

"Nothing is ever forgotten. Not really. But you have to _try._"

The room shook violently. Dust cascaded down from the stone ceiling high above. "Doctor! It's speeding up!" River shouted from the window.

Amy picked up the Sonic from the floor of the Pandorica and leaned forward to place it in his pocket.

"There's going to be a _very_ big bang... Big Bang Two. Try and remember your family and they'll be there," he instructed.

"How can I remember them if they never existed?"

"Because," the Doctor interrupted. "You're special. That crack in your wall, all that time. The universe pouring into your head... you brought Rory back, you can bring them back too. You just remember," he kissed his hand and placed it on Amy's, "and they'll be there."

"Doctor, we're nearly out of time!" River called again.

"No, no, I'm not ready yet!" he replied angrily. He placed a hand on Amy's shoulder and pulled her into a loving hug. "I'm sorry." They parted and the Doctor turned to Alex. "And I'm sorry to you, too."

"What for?" Alex questioned.

The Doctor's breathing had become incredibly laboured. "Did you never wonder, Alex, why I landed at your friend's house, those years ago?"

"You were tracing the Sontaran. You said so."

"You know me Alex. That was never going to be the whole story..." he winced, grunting.

"What then?" Alex grimaced.

"You said earlier, Karen was your last vestige of family left in the world."

"Yeah, she is. She was. My granddad's not blood... my grandmother, she remarried."

"Yeah, your grandmother, Alex, it's her I'm interested in. What was her name?"

"Her name?" he asked, bemused.

The Doctor nodded, his eyes closed. "Her name and her maiden name."

"Susan... Foreman, I think." The Doctor grinned, eyes still closed, breathing very deeply. He nodded. "What's that got to do with things?"

"I found a trace on a machine. Jack, Jack Harkness, he gave me this... sample... of Time Lord DNA. My old hand. I followed that trace to that house,"

"There was Time Lord... who? Where?" Alex asked forcefully, beginning to understand, though almost wishing he weren't.

The Doctor swallowed before continuing. "Susan Foreman was my granddaughter."

Alex's eyes widened in shock. He stepped back, also breathing hard now. "No, no, that's wrong, tell me you're lying,"

"Your father was dead. Susan was dying, she... she _is_ dead now. You. My 'last vestige of family left in existence'... my last living blood relative. Again... how could I resist?"

"But... we can't be. I'm not Time Lord, I-"

"No. But you're nearer than anything else left in the universe."

"Well... what about Karen? She's my grandmother's granddaughter; she must be Time Lord too then-"

"-No, in part-humans it-" he paused, wincing. "The T-time Lord DNA, it... it's only passed on through the... the first-born child." Alex continued to stare at the Doctor, sat in the Pandorica, kept alive only by a light. His great-great-grandfather. "I'm sorry," the Doctor went on. "I should've told you sooner..." Alex still didn't respond, looking down at the ground now.

Eventually, Alex opened his mouth. Then, he closed it again, before thinking and looking up at the Doctor. "So that's why you took me? Not out of gratitude for saving you, not because you liked my company or anything. Because I'm your grandson?"

"Is that wrong?" he questioned.

Alex closed his eyes in contemplation, his chin on his chest. Finally, he shook his head. "No. No, of course not."

The Doctor continued with another bombshell. "When I'm gone, your parents will be alive."

"They'll _what_?"

"I told you your parents were killed by the Empress of the Racnoss." Alex nodded. "She only attacked like that because I killed her children. If I never exist... her star ship will never become the centre of the Earth... she'll never attack... your parents will survive that train journey,"

"And we'll never have met,"

"No. You'll live a normal life. Parents, sister, girlfriend. Marriage, job. Children. Keep that Time Lord line running. Keep our people alive."

"How can I, if you never exist? I won't carry the Time Lord DNA, _I_ won't even exist!"

"You will. The universe'll compensate. You'll be fine."

"I won't have you, Doctor. You've made my life worth something. Before you, I just went through life aimlessly, one day to the next. I didn't save your life. _You_ saved _mine_. You save mine _every__day_. You can't go," Alex whispered, shaking his head in despair.

"You won't need me. Neither of you will," he said, glancing towards Amy, who had taken a step back to allow Alex and the Doctor to speak. "You'll both have your families back. You won't need me anymore." Tears were streaming down both Amy's and Alex's cheeks. The Doctor chuckled sadly. "You two... crying over me, eh? Guess what," he asked, breathing deeper than ever.

"What?" Amy asked.

"Gotcha," he smiled as the great walls of the Pandorica slid closed, blocking their last view of the strange, wonderful man called the Doctor.

_I've had that final scene written for months, probably from around when I was writing The Time of Angels or before. So, who can pick out all the clues from the whole fic that hinted this? They roll all the way back to First Contact! And no, I don't expect you to scour through the chapters to find them. Or do I...? _

_Anyway, after the final part, I'm going to have a sheer commentary chapter, in which I clear up loose ends etc as well as explain the arc properly. If ya'll have any questions for me, stick it in a review! :p _


	47. The Big Bang: Three

_Yeah... sorry about the late update. Certain recent game releases meant this had to temporarily go on the back-burner... :) _

_So there you have it. Alex is a quarter Gallifreyan and the Doctor's great-great-grandson! This here is the last chapter of series 5! Like I said at the end of the last part, I'll upload a sort of commentary chapter tomorrow, where I explain the arc, where the hints were etc, along with my plans for the future. Now, on with the finale!_

The Big Bang – Part Three

Alex awoke with a jump and groaned. He glanced at his clock. It was 7:14. What had woken him this early? He didn't have to wait long to find out, as his phone vibrated again. He lifted his hand with some effort and picked the phone up. He squinted as the bright, dazzling screen informed him that his mother was calling. He groaned, clicked 'answer' and held the phone to his ear.

"Yeah?" he grunted, rather rudely.

His mum seemed in too much of a rush to care; she also skipped the pleasantries. "Are you ready to go?" she asked frantically, sounding as if she were running around as she spoke.

"Go where?" Alex replied, slowly sitting up.

"Amy's wedding! We're picking you up in fifteen minutes! Are you telling me you forgot?"

Alex groaned inwardly. He hadn't forgotten, not really. He just didn't want to go. Amy was his mum's god-daughter. Their parents were good friends. Alex had found Amy incredibly attractive for years. It was just a bit unfair that Alex, recently turned 26, was single whereas Amy, 21, had been with her boyfriend Rory for the best part of three years and was getting married. "No, I'll be ready," he said, surreptitiously stifling a yawn.

"Good. See you in a bit," and she hung up the phone.

Alex sighed and threw the bed covers off of him. He swung his legs out of bed and rubbed his face. "Right," he said to himself. "Where are you?" He got up and walked over to his cheap wardrobe. He rifled through the clothes within and eventually found his black suit jacket and trousers. Fortunately, they were ironed, though Alex had no recollection of doing so. He picked out a shirt and a tie at random and, deciding to skip the shower and simply douse his armpits in deodorant, donned the clothes. He checked himself in the mirror. He looked like he worked in a casino.

After a few more minutes of rushing around the flat – gobbling down a piece of toast, brushing his teeth, styling his hair, and so on – the door bell rang. Alex hurried towards the door, silently congratulating himself on the fact that he had prepared himself for a wedding in less than fifteen minutes. He threw the door open to find his dad, Cass Morgan, standing there, waiting for him impatiently. For reasons unbeknownst to Alex himself, his face split into an enormous grin and he pulled his father into a tight hug, laughing.

"Alex," he choked. "What're you doing?"

"I have no idea," Alex replied, as he patted his father on the back and pulled away. He turned to close his front door. "Come on then!" He jogged down the steps, his father in tow. Why had he done that..?

The drive to Leadworth was a long one. Alex had climbed into the back of his parents' car (after treating his mother to the same tight hug his father had received) and greeted Karen with a high five and a cheesy smile.

"So how's the job hunt going then?" his mother asked Alex as they turned onto the motorway towards Leadworth.

"It's not really," Alex admitted, looking out of the window at the countless trees speeding past, trying inanely to catch a glimpse of an animal in amongst them.

"Give it time," she replied comfortingly. "It's tough out there. Sharon at work said her son applied for a job at a corner shop in town. Just a little corner shop – forty seven applicants!"

"I was thinking of maybe going travelling," Alex told them absent-mindedly.

His dad nearly crashed the car. "_Travelling_?" he screeched as he straightened the wheel and apologised to the driver in the next lane with a hand gesture, who replied with a certain different one. "Whose ridiculous idea was that?"

"Mine," Alex replied defensively. "I want to see more of the world than the arse end of nowhere where I live at the moment."

"Language," his mum warned.

"Don't be ridiculous," his dad said irritably. "For starters, where're you going to find the money from? You're still up to your arse in debt from university fees."

"Language!"

"Where are you going to go?" Karen asked innocently, the slightly rude words passing right over her head.

"Wherever I want, Kaz. See where the wind takes me."

"Can I go?" she grinned.

Alex chuckled. "'Fraid not."

"And neither can you," their father muttered. Alex rolled his eyes and rubbed his head. He had a headache coming on, he was sure of it.

T H E B I G B A N G

The time was approaching eleven o'clock by the time they reached Leadworth. The sleepy village looked like something out of a book, and half the population of it seemed to be at Leadworth registry office to celebrate the wedding. They parked in the car park outside and made their way to the building, where a large, rather imposing man stood.

"Hey guys," he said as they approached. "I'm Jeff. Here for the Williams/Pond wedding?"

"Indeed we are," said Alex's dad.

"Cool. Are you here for the bride or groom?"

"Ow!" Alex burst out, his hand jumping to his forehead as a pain shot through it. Everyone looked at him with various expressions on their faces. Concern, surprise, bemusement and in the case of his father, irritation.

"The bride," he continued.

"Okay. Names?"

"Morgan. Arthur, Fleur, Alex, Karen," Dad said, pointing to the four of them individually. Jeff scanned his list, found their names and ticked them off. He then directed them into the room to the right and where they might sit.

"It's nice... for a registry office," Mum muttered to Dad.

"Shh," Alex whispered harshly as a few heads turned nearby and rolled their eyes, tutting.

"You'd think they'd have a church, in a village like this though," Dad grumbled. Alex made sure to place Karen between himself and his parents, to best avoid any further embarrassment.

A few minutes later, the pianist fired up the piano and began to play _Pachelbel__'__s__Canon_. Dad made a murmured comment about "not very original" but Alex heard no more. A beautiful woman, dressed in a long, white dress that went surprisingly well with her flaming red hair stepped through the doorway and into the room, accompanied by a portly, balding man. Amy looked radiant. She looked around the room as she and her father began to make their way down to aisle. Her eyes landed on Alex. She smiled at him and waved slightly. Then, a second later, she was gone, her eyes set on the man waiting for her at the end of the aisle, Rory Williams.

T H E B I G B A N G

"See?" Alex asked, putting his drink down on a coaster. "It _was_ nice, 'for a registry office'."

"I never said it wouldn't be," Mum replied haughtily. Alex rolled his eyes again. They were now at the reception in a large hall. At the head table sat Amy, Rory and their families. The rest of the tables, all circular and spread around the room, were a complete mishmash. Alex didn't have a clue who the people he shared his table with were, though he was sure they spoke little or no English.

"Guys!" called a man from the top table. "Everyone, can I have your attention?" The hubbub and conversation in the room gradually settled down as everyone turned to listen. "Hi there, everyone. I'm Rory's best man and uh... well. Doesn't take a genius to work out. This is my speech! I've done my best to make it funny, so uh, let's get going. This comedy bus is going to giggle street."

Alex frowned, sure he'd heard a comedian use that joke somewhere before. Possibly _Live__at__the__Apollo_. The thought left his head as a sharp pain took its place. Alex managed to stifle his outburst this time, but that didn't mean it wasn't any less painful. In fact, it was probably worse. Then, suddenly, as fast as it had come on, the pain was gone.

"... but I personally think it's both a miracle _and_ a travesty that someone like ol' Rory here managed to pull someone like Amy. My theory is that he just wore her down until she gave in..."

Alex stopped listening. This guy was just being rude now. After another minute or so, he told a joke that must have been good, as everyone in the room gave it an appreciative laugh and applauded the best man.

"Now then, ladies and gentleman, the father of the bride, Augustus Pond!" called another man at the head table. People cheered as the same balding, portly man that had walked Amy down the aisle slowly got to his feet.

"Sorry everyone," he said sheepishly. "I'll be another two minutes! Just reviewing certain aspects." He sat down among joking boos and 'Aww!'s.

Alex closed his eyes and grunted as the pain returned. He balled his hand up into a fist and kept his eyes tight shut, waiting for the pain to subside. He felt a tugging on his jacket sleeve. He opened his eyes slowly and saw Karen looking at him worriedly and pushing her glass of water towards him. Alex smiled at her compassion, kissed her on the top of the head and took a sip. It didn't do a thing, but it seemed to satisfy her. Another stabbing pain and Alex groaned again, louder this time, though he managed to disguise it as a cough. Not that it stopped his father frowning at him.

"Ready now!" Augustus called the people to order, standing up once more. "Sorry about that. Last minute adjustments to certain aspects..."

"Bathroom," Alex mumbled, jumping from his chair and staggering from the hall. He burst through the double doors and crossed the corridor, pushing open the window. He took a deep lungful of cool air. It did nothing. Try as he might, he couldn't stop himself; he shouted out. The pain was becoming unbearable. What was wrong with him?

And somehow, he knew what was wrong. No. He didn't. Nothing was _wrong_. Things were slotting into place. Something was coming. Something important.

The doors to the hall opened again. Alex turned to see his mum standing by the slightly ajar door. She was frowning slightly. "What?" he asked slightly rudely, expecting a lecture about making a scene by bursting out of the wedding reception.

"Amy wants to see you," she replied, surprisingly.

"What for?" Alex frowned.

"_I_ don't know! Now come along."

She turned and re-entered the hall. Alex ran by once more what she had just said. 'Come along'. Why did those words have such significance?

"_Come along, Pond,"_

"_Come along, Morgan,"_

"_Oh, two of you! Complicated. Come along, Ponds!"_

Alex's eyes widened, his mouth agape. Barely noticing that the pain in his head had disappeared, he turned and sprinted back into the wedding hall.

"Amy!" he shouted, turning to face the top table, where Amy was standing. "You remember?"

She nodded with watery eyes.

"Where is he?"

"He's coming..." she replied happily. "You're coming. I know you are. I found you in words like you knew I would," Amy called to the room. "That's why you told me the story; the brand new, ancient, blue box. Clever. Very clever." As she spoke, Amy walked around to the front of the top table and stood beside Alex as the sound of familiar engines began to reverberate around the room. The balloons blew about in the breeze, the glasses of wine rattled together, the wedding attendees held onto their hats and, in one or two cases, wigs.

"Nobody else but you," Alex added. "Nobody else would be able to save themselves using a... _catchphrase_.

"What _are_ you two talking about?" Rory asked in confusion.

"Something old. Something new. Something borrowed... Something blue."

The sound of the engines reached a crescendo. At long last, in the middle of the hall, to the great shock of the guests, a large blue box, more boxy than before, but still the same old TARDIS, materialised.

"It's the Doctor," Rory muttered as it landed. "How did we forget the Doctor? I was plastic! He was the stripper at my stag," he mentioned to Tabitha, Amy's mum. Alex beamed at the TARDIS, leaning back onto the table to support himself, his eyes beginning to water.

Amy however, was having none of that. She strode forward and pounded on the front door of the TARDIS. "Okay Doctor. Did I surprise you this time?"

A moment or two later, the door burst open. "Er, yeah," the Doctor replied. He was wearing top and tails along with a rather bizarre silk scarf. "Completely astonished. Never expected that. How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing," he grinned, straightening his lapels. "Hello everyone!" he called, walking out of the TARDIS and taking in the room. "I'm Amy's imaginary friend! But I came anyway," he winked, shaking Amy's dad's hand.

"You absolutely, _definitely_ may kiss the bride," Amy said, walking towards the Doctor with lust in her eyes.

"Sod the bride," Alex interrupted, putting himself between Amy and the Doctor. "Family gets first dibs." He wrapped his arms around the Doctor and hugged him, laughing. The Doctor reciprocated. "Good to see you. Granddad." Alex had a sudden wild thought that those wedding guests who were unfortunate enough to have their table placed behind where the TARDIS had landed would be completely and utterly lost, not being able to see proceedings as the front. He discarded it quickly.

"Oi," the Doctor grinned. "You'll feel the back of my hand in a minute. Or my shoe. Or my belt. What do grandparents use nowadays? Mobiles? Pensions? Oh, Rory!" he cried as Rory joined the three of them in front of the top table. "Here he is! The brand new Mr Pond!"

Rory chortled momentarily before stopping and frowning. "No! I'm not Mr Pond! That's not how it works."

"Yeah it is," the Doctor assured him.

"Yeah, it is..." Rory agreed after a second's thought.

"Right then everyone," the Doctor announced, clapping Alex on the shoulder as he walked back to the TARDIS. "I'll move my box. You're gonna need the space... I only came for the dancing!"

T H E B I G B A N G

"But who is he? And what is that box?" Alex's mother asked for the umpteenth time.

"He's the Doctor!" Karen said happily. "He's Alex's friend. And that's the TARDIS."

"How would you know?" Mum asked irritably.

"Because she's met him," Alex groaned. "Long story, difficult to explain. He's my... well, yeah, friend. For want of a better word. We... travel."

"Travel," Dad frowned. "Travel _where_?"

"All over,"

"What? Bristol?"

"Bit further afield than that," Alex grinned.

"Wales?"

"You alright?" the Doctor asked, appearing at probably the worst possible time. He took a seat at the table. "Oh! Hello!" he said to Alex's dad. "You must be Cass! Yes, great-grandson, hello!"

"Excuse me?" Dad asked in a mixture of shock, surprise and slight intimidation.

"Finished dancing, Doctor?" Alex asked slightly more loudly than necessary, hoping the Doctor would get the message to shut up.

"I've only just got started. Come along, Morgan." However, instead of Alex, the Doctor had seized Karen's hand and pulled her towards the dance floor. She laughed all the way.

"Can we trust him with her?" Mum muttered.

"'Course," Alex assured them. "He's a doctor."

T H E B I G B A N G

"Mrs Amelia Williams," Alex smiled as he and Amy danced together slowly.

"Pond," Amy corrected.

"Pond," Alex agreed smiling. "Hey. If we _did_ eventually get married, would you have taken Morgan?"

"Nope," she replied, grinning cheekily. "Oh come on. Amelia Morgan? That's far too many Ms."

"What, two?" Amy nodded and smiled, which descended into giggling. Alex joined in. "So," he went on. "What now? Honeymoon? Maybe... I dunno. Greece? Hawaii? Italy?"

"They're where you were planning to take Daisy, aren't they?"

"They were on the agenda,"

"Well I don't know about rocket-scientists, or whatever she is, but us kissograms don't get a great wage," Amy reminded him. "So I have no idea."

"Maybe _he_ can take you somewhere,"

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Nice, exotic... free,"

Alex had a sudden thought. "Is Rory going to be okay with this, us dancing together? We _did_ nearly get married ourselves,"

"I think he's a bit too preoccupied to care," she smirked, nodding across the dance floor. Alex followed her gaze to see the Doctor forcing an incredibly awkward Rory to dance with him. Alex and Amy glanced at each other again before collapsing into further fits of laughter.

T H E B I G B A N G

"I should probably thank you. Again," Rory said to Alex as they sat down together at the bar, sipping their drinks.

"Why?" Alex replied in confusion.

"You looked after Amy while I was... away. But... not, y'know..."

"Looking after her 'too much'?"

"Yeah. Cheers. Not many people would've done that. _He_ certainly wouldn't have," Rory said sourly, nodding towards a man parading around in time to the music. It was Jeff.

"Ah Jeff's not so bad," Alex recalled their short meeting, many, many moons ago. "Not bad footwork, he's got," Alex noted, the endless Saturday evenings of _Strictly__Come__Dancing_ with Daisy apparently paying off. "Not as good as yours though," he added as an afterthought, struggling to suppress his laugh.

"Don't you _dare_ tell anyone about that."

"I won't," Alex promised sincerely. "Only you, me, the Doctor, Amy, the DJ, the barman, the various waiters, _your_ mum and dad, _Amy__'__s_ mum and dad, _my_ mum and dad, the guy who took out the bins, the cameraman and all the other guests are to know."

"My _parents_," Rory groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"It's fine," Alex assured him, laughing. "It's your wedding; everyone goes a bit crazy at a wedding. I mean, look at him." Alex gestured towards the dance floor, where a man with his back to them was flailing his arms and legs around in a shockingly poor attempt to dance. They continued to watch the crazed dancer, mesmerised, before recognition crept upon their faces.

"Is that..?"

"Yeah."

T H E B I G B A N G

The reception was approaching its natural end. A large portion of the guests had already given in to fatigue and headed home. With a glass or two of alcohol coursing through their veins, Alex's parents had let their hair down and were one of the few couples still dancing. Rory and Amy slow-danced together – essentially stepping from side to side – with their heads nestled lovingly in each other's shoulders, Rory holding onto Amy's high heeled shoes. Alex looked on proudly as James Morrison's '_You__Give__Me__Something__'_ emitted from the speakers.

"Two thousand years," said a voice that sounded as proud as Alex felt. Alex turned to see the Doctor standing next to his chair. "The boy who waited."

"Good man," Alex whispered, agreeing wholeheartedly. "So. What now?" he asked the Doctor as he absent-mindedly played with a salt shaker on the table. "You've pretty much revealed yourself to this lot. And you pretty much told my dad that he's your great-grandson. Not that he believed you." Alex frowned. He couldn't recall the Doctor having been this quiet for a long time. He turned his head and saw that he'd disappeared. Again.

T H E B I G B A N G

"Every time!" Amy moaned as she, Rory and Alex headed back to Amy's house where the Doctor had re-parked the TARDIS. Alex had managed to commandeer an unattended vehicle and was driving them back. "Always running off and leaving us!"

"Is this legal?" Rory asked from the back seat, his worry apparent in his facial expression.

"'Course not," Alex grinned. "But we don't mean any harm. They'll get it back."

"But this is stealing!"

"As a wise old man once told me, it's the big crimes you want to look out for. Don't pay attention to the small crimes, because then life's dull."

"No prizes for guessing who the wise old man was," Rory muttered.

"Oi. Cheeky." Alex pulled up outside Amy's large old Leadworth home and he and Amy clambered out of the car. Alex chucked Rory the keys to lock it up and he and Amy left him behind, rushing towards the TARDIS, stationary in the front garden. Alex reached it first and rapped swiftly on the door with his knuckles. "Oh, Granddaddy!" he called patronisingly, causing Amy to giggle. She then pushed the door open and strode inside.

"Where are you off to? We haven't even had a snog in the shrubbery yet," she called to the Doctor on the console level, who had his back to them and seemed busy at work.

"Amy!" Rory reprimanded, having caught up.

"Shut up; it's my wedding."

"_Our.__Wedding_. Oh, and I left the keys _in_ the car," Rory informed Alex irritably.

"Now _anyone_ could steal it!" Alex cried in mock agitation. He grinned and clapped Rory on the shoulder as he joined them at the console.

"Sorry, you lot," the Doctor apologised, finishing with a certain implement on the console and turning to face them all. "Shouldn't have slipped away... bit busy, y'know?"

"You just saved the whole of space and time?" Rory pointed out. "Take the evening off. Maybe a bit of tomorrow!"

The Doctor rubbed his face and began to wander around the console, pressing a button here and there. "Time and space isn't safe yet; the TARDIS exploded for a reason. Something drew the TARDIS to this particular date and blew it up." As the Doctor continued, the TARDIS phone began to ring. "Why? And why now?" It continued to ring. "The Silence, whatever it is, is still out there. And I have to- excuse me." The Doctor gave up and picked up the phone. "Hello? ... Oh, hello..."

Alex, Amy and Rory exchanged looks.

"I'm sorry, this is a very bad line," the Doctor continued, putting a finger in one ear and then removing it. "No, no, but that's not possible; she was sealed into the Seventh Obelisk. I was at the prayer meeting... Well no, I get that it's important - an Egyptian Goddess loose on the Orient Express. In space. Give us a mo'." He covered the mouthpiece of the phone and turned to his friends. Rory had a mouth slightly agape, Amy was grinning, Alex had one eyebrow raised in surprise. "Sorry. Something's come up; this will have to be goodbye."

"Yeah," Amy decided. "I think it's goodbye. Do you think it's goodbye?"

"Definitely goodbye," Rory agreed.

"Alex?"

"Absolutely," he nodded.

Amy turned and walked towards the TARDIS doors with aplomb. She pulled them open the stuck her head outside. "GOODBYE!" she shouted to the night as Alex and Rory chuckled. She waved one last time, then closed the door again and jogged back to the console. They all looked at the Doctor expectantly.

The Doctor grinned and put the phone back to his ear. "Don't worry about a thing, Your Majesty. We're on our way."


	48. Author's Note: Commentary

Hello to all of you wonderful readers, subscribers, favourite author'ers and casual .net'ers who just happen to come across this 'chapter'! Now that I've finished writing Series 5 (_sob_), I thought it was time to have, as I've called it, a 'commentary' chapter, to clear a few things up. So, first and foremost:

I AM WRITING SERIES 6

I've had quite a few reviews asking if I would be and yes, I can categorically confirm, I am! Before that though, I've got a few other chapters coming your way. Firstly, the Christmas Special. Just, not out at Christmas. I'm not going to be writing A Christmas Carol. Instead, I'm actually going to be writing something else. It's partly my own, original story, but it's a premise that you'll all be familiar with! After that, I'm going to upload the Comic Relief 'Space and Time' mini episodes. _Then,_two, possibly three Meanwhiles, before we begin series six with The Impossible Astronaut: One.

Right then. The arc for series 5. Alex the Time Lord. So, if we're assuming that Susan is fully Gallifreyan (I don't think that's ever been disputed, but y'know), then that would make Alex one quarter Gallifreyan, and the Doctor's great-great-grandson. Torchwood Boy asked if, since Susan was dropped off by the Doctor in 2100, does that mean that's where Alex is from too? Nope! Who knows what went on in Susan's life between being dropped off and Alex's birth? She might've spent some time in the 2100s, then come back in time to settle down in the 20th Century.

Here are the clues that I can remember off the top of my head. Well, these are the bigger ones. Smaller clues, mentioned in passing, are scattered throughout. Not even I'd be able to remember them all.

First Contact: The Doctor and Alex's first meeting. Explained well enough by the Doctor in The Big Bang: Two

Amy's Choice: The Dream Lord's entire conversation with Alex, questioning why the Doctor has such an attachment to Alex. Meaning that their relationship must go beyond that of friends, since the Doctor almost makes a habit of just dropping his friends off when he gets bored of them

The Ik-haals: Well, pretty simple, this one. The Ik-haals thought Alex was the Doctor because they found Time Lord DNA. The Doctor's explanation at the end was wrong. After all, Rule One?

Vincent and the Doctor: Alex's story of his childhood. He never felt fully at home wherever he was? Well, that'll be because one quarter of him yearned to be on Gallifrey! That feeling went away when he met the Doctor? I wonder why!

The Lodger: The little note Alex and Amy found was written by Alex's Grandmother (or, as we may now call her, Susan), which is why Alex recognised the writing. It was sticking out of a book about genealogy; a little hint that descendents/ancestors would have something to do with the mystery

The Pandorica Opens: Susan knew the legends of the Pandorica because she'd heard them when she grew up on Gallifrey!

Also, the Doctor's little speech to Alex about family secrets.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm certain they're the bigger clues, anyway. Like I said, there are smaller clues scattered throughout. Think of it as a treasure hunt ;)

Oh, and I'm going to change the title of this fic to 'Doctor Who: Series 5 And Beyond!'. Rubbish name, I know, but I want to keep all my uploads to one story, so all of my Series 6 chapters will be uploaded to this too. Any suggestions for a better name would be appreciated.

Once more, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for reading and (hopefully) enjoying this fic. When I uploaded The End of Time: One back in January, I had no idea it would prove this popular, not that I would see it through to the end of the series! Only took me ten months! :P So yes, thank you all, and I shall see you soon with my next update.

-Jeffandtheworld/Alex


	49. The Seventh Obelisk: One

_Well hello there, strangers! Welcome back. I know, it's been a looong time. I apologise. But here we are. An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express! This is a hard one to write actually, since that line is all I had to invent an entire plot-line! _

_Now, after Christmas, I've got a busy six months. I'm now in my final year of 6th Form (Wikipedia it, if you don't know), so I'll have exams and coursework and deadlines and all the rest of it, so God knows when I'll be able to update this. I'll do my best to make it at least semi-regular!_

_After this episode, I'll have a two or three Meanwhiles, and then begin with The Impossible Astronaut. I'm hoping to get the last Meanwhile uploaded on the 16th January, since that'll be a year since I uploaded The End of Time!_

The Seventh Obelisk – Part One

"'An Egyptian Goddess, loose on the Orient Express'," Rory quoted, leaning on the rail of the console to support himself.

"And you said Your Majesty," Amy added. "Are we going to meet the... _a_ king or queen?"

"In a manner of speaking," the Doctor agreed.

"Let me try and work this out," Alex said, pulling the TARDIS scanner around to him. "What year are we heading to?"

"1972,"

Alex typed in '1972', 'royalty' and 'Europe'. "Alright. So, obviously, it might be Elizabeth II of Britain... Juliana of Holland..."

"You aren't going to get it," the Doctor smiled as he pulled a lever.

"Something obscure then, yeah? How about... the Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg?"

"Nah," the Doctor replied as the TARDIS landed. All still in their wedding attire, the four of them walked towards the door which the Doctor threw open. He greeted the figure standing outside and hugged him warmly. "High King of the Egyptian Pantheon of the Gods, the Lord Osiris!"

As the Doctor and Osiris parted, Alex's mouth dropped open. The man had green skin. He was humanoid, certainly. Two arms, two legs, a torso, a head. But they were all green. On Osiris' green chin was a long black beard that stretched beyond his chest and onto his stomach. He held some kind of sceptre in his hand and wore a tall, white hat on his head. Alex, Amy and Rory were all speechless.

"Ah, Doctor. You have brought friends, I see," Osiris said cheerfully, noting their shocked faces. "Do not be alarmed, my children. You have nothing to fear in I."

The Doctor reached out and closed Alex's mouth. "Let me reiterate. This is the Lord Osiris, High King of the Egyptian Pantheon of the Gods. Ruler of the Ancient Egyptian Underworld and Lord of Life, Death and the Afterlife."

"Though much better than that _ghastly_ Hades that the Greeks worship!" Osiris chuckled. "He got the idea of an Underworld from me, you know."

Alex realised his mouth had fallen open again. He hurriedly closed it and attempted to compose himself. "S-so. You're a... a god?" he asked tentatively.

"They speak! Goodness Doctor, I thought you had befriended mutes. Yes, dear boy, I am Osiris. And, as you say, a god."

"Oh, sorry! Yes, right. Osiris, this is Alex, Amy and Rory. Alex will be helping us with ol' Hathor. These two, not so much."

"Hey, why not?" Amy cried, outraged.

"Who's Hathor?" Rory added.

"Amy, this is the _Orient Express_!" the Doctor pointed out. It wasn't until that moment that Alex realised they were even aboard a train. He could now hear the telltale sounds of a train on a train track, feel the slight vibrations. "What better place to start the honeymoon? Now, take this and go get yourself a compartment. Maybe an entire carriage!" He handed Rory the psychic paper.

"Hold on," Rory muttered, remembering something. "You said this was the Orient Express _in space."_

"Yeah, and I lied. Now go." He pushed Rory and Amy – still dressed in her pearly white dress and high heels – out of the room and closed the door behind him. "Now. Osiris. What's Hathor doing here?"

"Well, Doctor. You know how she yearns to be loved,"

"That's why she was sealed into the obelisk," the Doctor nodded.

Alex frowned. "She was imprisoned because she wanted to be loved? Doesn't seem very fair."

"Alex, what do you know what Hathor?" the Doctor enquired.

"Nothing,"

"Exactly. So be quiet while I find out what's going on. I'll explain everything in far more detail later."

"Come now, Doctor. The young boy is merely being inquisitive! You see, Alex, the Pantheon of the Egyptian Gods have one law by which they must abide. They cannot dabble in that which they rule over. Do you see?" Alex slowly nodded. He didn't see. Osiris recognised this and continued. "I, for example, am Ruler of Death. Therefore, I can never die. So one might say that I am immortal, yes? But, to be immortal, one must be alive. As I am also the Ruler of Life, I cannot be truly alive."

Alex nodded again, beginning to understand. "So that means... Hathor is the goddess of Love?"

"Precisely," Osiris smiled. "And therefore, she will never be permitted to fall in love. It would cloud her vision."

"But, you can't help falling in love," Alex pointed out, having experience in the field. "It... just happens."

"And it did happen," the Doctor said sadly, continuing the story. "Quite a few times. But every time Hathor fell for someone, the Pantheon would order that person to be destroyed. The plan was to break her heart so many times that she would be unable to fall in love again..."

"That's horrific!"

"Hathor felt the same. She became enraged with her brothers. She began to pretend to fall in love with those men whom her fellow gods favoured, so that they would be forced to destroy them – the artists, the courtiers, the architects, the priests." Osiris had a look of great sadness upon his green face as he recalled the story. Evidently, he had been forced to kill some of his own favourites.

"And then she fell in love with someone else," the Doctor went on.

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Me."

"_You_?"

"I was absolutely, categorically unwilling to destroy the Doctor," Osiris told Alex proudly. "Under no circumstances could that be allowed to happen. So myself and my brothers discussed. We concocted a plan. We would use the Doctor as bait and imprison Hathor into the Seventh Obelisk of Cairo, and finally put a stop to her."

A silence filled the room as Osiris looked at the Doctor, still with a slightly smug look on his green face. Before anyone spoke up, the window to the carriage opened of its own accord. Alex frowned and began to walk to close it again, but was stopped by the Doctor. Through the window floated a small orb of light which headed directly for Osiris. It dropped, settled to the floor and glowed. It grew, a humanoid figure growing out of it. When the figure seemed complete, the illuminating hue faded and Alex nearly had a heart attack. Stood in front of them was what appeared to be a half human, half dog. He had the body of a man, but on his human neck was the head of a large, fearsome, black dog.

"Doctor!" the dog barked cheerfully. "It is good of you to come,"

"Not a problem, Anubis, not a problem," the Doctor grinned, shaking the creature's hand. "Anubis, this is Alex, he's a friend,"

"Pleasure," Anubis nodded at Alex before turning to Osiris. "My Lord, the Council requests your presence. They require an update on how close you are to recapturing her."

Osiris groaned. "I might have an opportunity to get close to recapturing her if I wasn't being constantly called back to the Council with updates. You'd be forgiven for thinking I wasn't the king," he grumbled. "Doctor, might I ask you to explore? Find what you can? I _very_ much doubt Hathor will leave the train."

The Doctor saluted to show his understanding. Osiris smiled warmly and he and Anubis transformed into small orbs of light. Together, they floated through the open window and out of sight. There was silence in the carriage for a moment or two. Eventually, Alex gathered the courage to turn his eyes towards the Doctor, who was grinning inanely.

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"Of course, they aren't really gods," the Doctor mentioned as he and Alex walked through the train. Occasionally, they would open one of the cabin doors to see if Hathor dwelled within.

"Well what are they?" Alex asked, slowly sliding open one of the doors and peering inside. It was empty.

"Aliens." He opened the next door and poked his head through. A shriek came from inside. "Sorry!" The Doctor quickly withdrew and closed the door. "Yes, gods, Egypt, aliens."

"What was that?" Alex smirked.

"Nothing. So, yeah, they're aliens. They came to Earth centuries ago... they're members of a species who integrate themselves into other cultures, set themselves up as gods and goddesses. Distant relatives of the Nimons. Not that this lot know that... they've been here so long, they actually think they're gods, to be worshipped, and adored and... sacrificed to."

Alex whistled in appreciation and slid open another door. Inside, two elderly men were sitting either side of a chessboard. They both looked up at him expectantly. "Hi," Alex smiled. "Haven't seen an unusual-looking woman around, have you?" They continued to stare at him blankly. "Goes by the name of Hathor?" Alex continued. Still nothing. Giving up, he stepped back and closed the door. "Either deaf, rude or a little bit thick," he concluded.

"Rude."

"Y'think?"

"Of course they were being rude, they were old men!"

"You're an old man," Alex pointed out.

"Yes, and I'm exceedingly rude!" the Doctor cried, sliding open the next door. Inside, Rory and Amy sat cuddled up to each other on the bed. "Oh, hello!" the Doctor said cheerfully, as they jumped apart in surprise.

"Could you knock?" Amy asked in exasperation.

"Nah, wastes time. How's the honeymoon?" the Doctor replied as Alex followed the Doctor inside and glanced around the posh compartment.

"Fine. It'd be better if you two hadn't barged in," Amy hinted irritably, nodding towards the door.

Alex and the Doctor were just backing out of the room, just slightly intimidated, when Rory spoke up. "How's the search going?"

The Doctor, glad of an excuse, barged back into the room. "Not great. She could be anywhere! She won't leave the train, too many honeymooning couples for her to want to leave. You know they have a set of carriages further up the train specifically designated for honeymoons?"

"Then why aren't we looking there..?" Alex rolled his eyes.

The Doctor frowned. "Good question." He grabbed Alex by the arm, backed out of the room to a look of bemusement from Amy and Rory and they both continued marching down the train.

"So what's this whole obelisk thing?" Alex asked conversationally, noting that, thankfully, they didn't appear to be checking rooms anymore – they'd passed at least five already.

"Obelisks can hold the physical forms of their race in situ. Don't ask how; I don't know myself. Their scientists developed them. Anyway, they trapped her body in the Seventh Obelisk - which is the one devoted to the worship of her. From what Osiris said on the phone, her obelisk was found and moved to a museum in Milan a few weeks ago. The Orient Express passes right by that museum. The fleeting... love," the Doctor grimaced, "on the train as it passed must've been enough to draw her out."

"What does she want? Revenge on the others for trapping her? Or still to be loved, or..?"

"I don't know. She's dangerous, but if we can find her, then everything'll be okay," the Doctor said happily. They had reached the end of this section of accomodation. The door to the next carriage informed them that this was the dining carriage. The Doctor cheerfully slid it open but stopped fast and closed it again. "Ah." He glanced at Alex. "Really should've remembered that. What're the chances that we both came on the exact same day?"

"Who..?" Alex asked.

The Doctor slid the door open again just slightly and let Alex see through it. "See the man at the table over there on the left. The last table?"

Alex looked and his eyes came to rest on the table the Doctor was pointing out. There were two men sat at the table, one of whom was facing their direction. The two men seemed in deep conversation. "Yeah, what about him?" Alex asked.

"That's me."

"_What_?"

"Past regeneration of me. Why didn't I remember coming here? I really should have remembered, this is going to be quite a big day. Why didn't I remember?"

Alex shook his head slightly, recovering from this bombshell. He glanced at the man again and chuckled. "Wait... you had a moustache?" he grinned.

The Doctor frowned and looked again. "What? No, no, no! Not him, the other one, the one he's at the table with."

"Well we can't even see his face, how was I to know which one you meant?"

"Oh come on. Am I in the army?" the Doctor asked, pointing directly at the man's obviously military attire. The man noticed this and frowned. He cut his conversation short, got up from the table and marched directly towards them. "Oh dear," the Doctor muttered. "Right, I'll draw him away. When I'm gone, go and sit with me."

Alex was still trying to get his head around what the Doctor had said when the man in the army uniform had reached him. The Doctor had already fled. "Who was that man?" he asked.

"Um," Alex struggled to form a convincing lie.

Fortunately, the man hadn't seemed to expect one, and ploughed on. "Where did he go?"

Alex wordlessly pointed down the carriage. The man gave him an exasperated look and left, apparently believing Alex to be slightly simple. Once he'd left into the next carriage, Alex slipped through the door into the dining cart and sat down at the table with, apparently, the Doctor.

"Can I help you my boy?" the man asked. Alex got his first good look at him. He looked far older than Alex had expected, having the physical age of a man around fifty-five.

"Doctor?" Alex asked uncertainly.

"Yes," the Doctor replied. "And who might you be?"

"I'm..." Alex stopped. What to say?

"Oi! You din't close the door be'ind ya!" called a man from halfway down the carriage. He was glaring at Alex and was seemingly drunk.

The Doctor frowned and got up from his chair. He strode down the carriage and closed the door himself. "There we are, old chap. No harm done," he said to the drunkard as he passed.

"Thanks for that," Alex smiled as the Doctor retook his seat.

"Yes, he's a bit of an intimidating fellow, isn't he? One wonders how someone like that could afford a ticket on the Orient Express," he chuckled. He then became very serious. "Now. You knew my name. Who are you?"

"Don't worry!" Alex said hastily, knowing how suspiscious this Doctor must be feeling. "It's okay, I'm a friend... I don't really know... how much I can say."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Are you here because of Hathor?" Alex asked, leaning in and lowering his voice.

"Yes... UNIT received word of her escape. The Brigadier and I took the job on. I'll ask again man, who are you?"

Alex took a deep breath and continued. "I'm from your future," he admitted.

"My future! Yes. Yes, of course. I can sense it now."

"Sense what?"

"I can now sense the Time Lord in you!" the Doctor said cheerfully. "We're generally a friendly bunch, with a few exceptions, of course. Oh. But Time Lord _plus_ human. Or, more acurately, human plus Time Lord... how intriguing."

"It's a long story," Alex confessed.

The Doctor grinned, leaned back in his chair and began to twiddle his thumbs. "It's a long train journey,"

The door to the dining carriage slid open again. The drunk man swore and got up moodily to close it, but fell back and cried out in shock. Alex and the Doctor looked up at the sound. Growing out of a small, blue-ish orb of light was a figure. A new one this time, one Alex didn't recognise. The light faded, and there she stood. She had blue, shoulder-length hair as well as yellowed skin and wore a full-length, orange dress. This must be Hathor.

"That's her," the Doctor muttered, confirming Alex's suspicions.

"What do we do?" Alex whispered back.

"Wait and see what she does first."

Hathor glided up and down the carriage, looking at each passenger individually. No-one but Alex and the Doctor was taking a blind bit of notice of her. Hathor seemed to be inspecting each individual. As she approached their table, both Alex and the Doctor busied themselves with buttering a piece of toast. She gazed at them both in turn for a moment or two, before moving on.

"No-one's noticed her," Alex pointed out, whispering. "No-one's even looking at her."

"Maybe they think she's just another eccentric honeymooner," the Doctor reasoned.

"With blue hair? Yellow skin?"

"I don't know what else to suggest."

Hathor was back where she had started, at the far end of the carriage. She was looking intently at a couple in front of her. They seemed deeply in love. Hathor smiled appreciatively and began to extend a hand to each of their foreheads...

Alex surreptitiously picked up one of the eggs on the Doctor's table. He took aim and launched it at the back of the drunk man's head where it exploded in a white and orange mess. The man exploded in a similar manner. Swearing, he jumped up from his chair - knocking the table – and seized a handful of napkins from the table, viciously attemtping to scrape the egg from the back of his bald head as the juices crept slowly towards his neckline. He swivelled on the spot and his eyes rested on Alex.

"Was this you?" he roared, squaring up to Alex, who stood his ground. From behind the man, Alex could see Hathor falter and pull her hands back from the couple, turning to see the commotion.

"We don't even have any eggs," Alex reasoned, gesturing to the eggless able.

"Well yeah, 'cos you just threw them at me!" the bulking mass of a man shouted.

"Wasn't me," Alex assured the man coolly.

The man sneered and lashed out, clipping Alex on the nose. He stormed out of the carriage, slamming the door closed behind him. As Alex recovered, he noticed Hathor retransform into an orb of light and float out of the door. The loving couple were none the wiser.

"Are you alright, my boy?" the Doctor asked as Alex dabbed at his nose with a napkin, cleaning up a little blood.

"Yeah, fine," Alex assured him, checking his nose in his reflection in the window. "No harm done."

"Why on Earth did you do that?"

"Well. Hathor's the goddess of love. She was drawn to the love she felt on the train, so I thought a bit of anger and violence might drive her away. Temporarily at least."

The Doctor laughed out loud. "Why, that's brilliant. Excellent, a most clever idea. And you might even have a nice battle scar to show for it... Lethbridge-Stewart, come and see."

Alex turned as the Doctor spoke to a man over his shoulder. It was the man in military clothing, who had returned with Alex's Doctor in tow.

"Ooh. You alright?" Alex's Doctor asked, noticing Alex's slightly bloody face.

"I'm fine," Alex repeated, prodding his nose apprehensively. There didn't seem to be any lasting damage.

"Yes, it's a lovely nose, Doctor, but what exactly am I looking at?" asked the military man.

"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, might I introduce Mr Alex Morgan. A splendid chap, managed to single-handedly drive away Miss Hathor. He's from my future, or so he tells me."

"Do you believe him?" asked the Brigadier.

"Oh yes. Absolutely. And who is _your_ friend?"

The Brigadier seemed to have forgotten about his 'friend'. He frowned. "Well, Doctor. He claims to be... the Doctor."

"Does he really?"

"Hello," the Doctor grinned. "I'm the Doctor! I'm you!"

"You're the newest model, are you? Yes, I can sense that now too."

Alex's Doctor laughed. "Look at that! Oh, it's been a while. Look at you! The frilly shirt, the velvet jacket, the cape... time flies, eh?"

"Quite. Now that we've finished inspecting my clothing, might I ask what you're doing here?" the Doctor asked tersely.

"Oh! I got a phone call! On the TARDIS. Escaped Egyptian godess. Couldn't resist."

"My dear fellow, didn't you remember that I was here too? You should have left it to me. Remember the first rule of time!"

Alex's Doctor frowned. "No. I didn't remember. I _should_ have, because you _are_ here. Why didn't I remember?"

"_I_ don't know. Where are we now? Which model are you?"

"Eleventh. And you're... don't tell me. Two? Three?"

"Three. Kindly don't associate me with that buffoon," the Doctor replied iritably. Alex made a mental note of their numbers. It would certainly make things easier.

"Oh come Doctor, he wasn't that bad," the Brigadier admonished.

"Thank you Alistair," Eleven said cheerfully, patting the Brigadier on the shoulder. "Now. Since we're both here, we might aswell work together. Two Doctors are better than one."

"Depends which Doctors," Three muttered.


	50. The Seventh Obelisk: Two

_I'm starting to get the feeling that Writer's Block likes me a bit too much. Anyway, here you go, part two! One more part after this one._

_And of course, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas – or whichever event you celebrate – and an equally brilliant New Year! Here's to 2012, eh?_

The Seventh Obelisk – Part Two

"You really shouldn't be here, you know," Three said for the umpteenth time as the Doctors, Alex and the Brigadier made their way back through the train. Both Doctors had sensed that Osiris had returned to the Express. "It might be better if you left in your TARDIS now."

"No chance," Eleven replied. "Would _you_ leave?"

"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart," he introduced himself, shaking Alex's hand rather formally and interrupting Alex's eavesdropping on the Doctors' conversation.

"Alex Morgan," Alex replied, feeling somewhat trivial compared to the Brigadier's grand introduction. "Is he always like this?" Alex asked, gesturing to Three as the two Doctors continued to bicker and banter.

"When he meets his other selves, yes,"

"How many of him have you met?"

"Including your one? Let's see... four. We had some nasty business with Omega."

"Omega?"

"Yes... apparently he was key in the invention of time travel. All seems like nonsense to me."

"Well it would. You're UNIT," Alex said cheekily.

"_Excuse me_?"

"I've got a friend at UNIT. Commander Hilton."

"Never heard of him."

"_Her_," Alex corrected. "And you wouldn't have. She hasn't been born yet," he grinned as the Brigadier frowned in confusion.

The group arrived at a carriage towards the back of the train. Eleven slid the door open. They were back in the storage carriage where the TARDIS had landed. Alex noticed Three look at it warmly, almost longingly.

"Ah. Doctors. You've found each other," said a voice, making Alex jump. He turned to see that Osiris had returned.

"So you set this little charade up, did you?" Three asked seriously. His face then split into a grin and he greeted Osiris like the old friends they were. "How do you do, old chap?"

"Doctor, you know this... man?" the Brigadier asked, eyeing Osiris' green complexion with apprehension.

"Of course. Lethbridge-Stewart, this is the Osiris. He's an Egyptian god too."

"Well he can't be a _real_ god, surely,"

Eleven cleared his throat warningly. "That will do, Alistair," he muttered. "Now then. Osiris. Hathor _is_ still on the train, we've seen her. Well, _we_ haven't, but Alex and my esteemed self here have."

"Excellent," Osiris said cheerfully, clapping his green hands together. "And what action did you take?"

"A... action?" Eleven asked, faltering.

"Yes. To recapture her?"

"Well, um, we, er," Eleven stammered, searching wildly for an acceptable response.

"I drove her away," Alex spoke up bravely (or stupidly), saving the Doctor.

"You did _what_?" Osiris cried. Stupidly.

"She looked like she was going to attack a couple!" Alex replied defensively, bracing himself. "She's a _goddess_, it's not like I had much chance of fighting her!"

"How did you drive her away?" Osiris asked urgently. No-one spoke. "How?" he repeated.

"I... I provoked someone in the carriage. Made him angry. She feeds off love, so I thought some anger might drive her away."

"No!" Osiris cried, burying his face into his hands. "Foolish boy! She doesn't feed off love, she feeds off powerful emotion. _Any_ powerful emotion! She assimilates it for herself. Now she's going to be even more aggressive than ever."

Alex's mouth dropped open, the gravity of what he'd done hitting him hard.

"Yes, well, we can worry about that later," Three said, giving Alex a swift, friendly grin. "I have a question though. What does Hathor do with all these emotions she feeds on?"

"Well, if the emotion is strong enough, she drains them dry. Your angry man," he said, nodding towards Alex, "may now be the friendliest human being ever to walk this planet. Never able to be angry again."

A shrill screeching arose from nearby. It was a woman's scream. The Brigadier drew his revolver and ran to the door, following the noise.

"Be careful, Doctors," Osiris called as the rest of the group followed him. "Think _before_ you act!"

They didn't have far to run before discovering the source of the scream. Slumped against the war of the next carriage was the body of a man, his head lolling forward onto his chest. Blood was trickling down from his temple. The Brigadier knelt down beside him and felt for a pulse.

"No, he's dead," he announced. "Poor chap."

Alex joined the Brigadier at the man's side. "But that was definitely a woman's scream,"

"Yeah, I think it probably was," Eleven muttered. He was looking through the open door of a nearby compartment. Sitting on the bed, gazing out of the door at the body was a woman. She was curled up into a ball with tears streaming down her cheeks. On the bed next to her was a silver water jug, with red stains on the side of it...

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"Yes, okay. Thank you, Benton. Over and out." The Brigadier put his radio back into his pocket. "The police are on their way," he told the group. The Doctors had taken charge and decided to hold the woman in her room until the police could board the train. Eleven had locked it with the Sonic.

"Thank you, Lethbridge-Stewart," Three replied. "But first, I should like to ask her a few questions."

"Now Doctor, don't you think that's a matter for the police?"

"My dear Brigadier. Do you really think the police are going to ask her questions about Hathor? Or do anything to help us find her? No, we must ask her our own questions before handing her over to the police."

"Of course, it's not really her fault," Eleven reminded them. "I'm not convinced we should hand her over to anyone."

"For her to have committed the murder would have required some form of that state of mind, regardless of the circumstances," Three shot back. "I'm not entirely happy about it either, but it's for the best."

"In you go then, Doctor," the Brigadier said, sliding open the door and stepping aside to allow Three in. "I'll go and speak to the driver, fill him in on the situation. I'll need to radio Benton too, tell him to hold off with the police,"

"Oh, can I do that?" Eleven asked like a child on Christmas, following the Brigadier towards the front of the train. "It'll be good to speak to him again."

Three and Alex exchanged amused looks and entered the compartment. The woman was still sitting in a ball on the bed, though she had stopped crying now.

"Now then, my dear," Three said cheerfully, sitting on the foot of the girl's bed. "I'm the Doctor. This is Alex. What's your name?"

"Are you the police?" she whimpered.

"No. But they are on their way. However, you help us, and we may be able to help you. So what's your name?"

"V-Vicky. Victoria Howard."

Alex leaned on the small table next to the bed. "Why'd you do it, Vicky?"

Vicky's eyes welled up again. "I don't know," she sniffed. "I just got so angry. I kept questioning why I'd ever married him; I felt like I hated him with all my heart."

"But you don't anymore?"

"No, I do. But I don't know why! I hate him, but I don't want to!"

"Tell me, Victoria. How long have you been aboard the train?"

"A few days. We got married last week. This was our..." She tailed off and began to shake with sobs again. "Our h-honeymoon."

"Vicky..." Alex began, wondering how to broach the subject. "Might seem an odd question, but... haven't spoken to anyone strange at all, have you? Maybe... blue hair. Yellow skin?"

She shook her head, still teary-eyed.

"She won't have seen her," Three suddenly realised. "Remember those people in the dining carriage?" he asked. "Nobody could see her but us."

"Why though?"

"We knew what we were looking for. There must be a weak perception filter surrounding her."

"What are you two talking about?" Vicky asked, confused.

"Nothing to worry about," Three smiled. "Thank you for your help. We'll get out of your way now."

"Wait!" she cried. "Will you help me? I didn't mean to kill him, I didn't!"

"I'll see what I can do," Three promised as he slid the door closed. He locked it with his own Sonic Screwdriver.

"Well that achieved nothing," Alex summarised. "How can we question her – or anyone – if no-one else can see Hathor?"

"We know all we need. Hathor stole Mrs Howard's love for her husband. That much is obvious. Why else would she hate him, but not want to?"

"Well then, Doctor? How did you get on?" the Brigadier asked as he and Eleven returned. The Brig was tucking his radio back into his pocket.

"This is most certainly Hathor's doing," Three concluded. "Did you speak to the driver?"

"Yes. He's a bit shocked, but I convinced him that the girl is secure, and he's agreed to continue on to our destination."

"And Benton and co. are in helicopters above, following is," Eleven added gleefully. "Ready to jump in when needed."

"We'll need to find her first though," Alex pointed out.

"She's in there, isn't she?" the Brigadier asked, nodding towards the locked door.

"Not her, Hathor. We need Hathor to prove to the authorities that this isn't Vicky's fault."

The Doctors and the Brigadier shared a look, which didn't go un-noticed by Alex.

Yes, well. We should split up and look for her," Three announced. "We'll cover more ground that way."

"Agreed," agreed Eleven. "My esteemed other self and I will go this way," he said, pointing towards the front of the train, "and Alex and Alistair, you go that way," he finished, pointing to the back of it.

"Whoa, whoa," Alex interrupted. "Shouldn't one of us be with one of you?"

"Yes, I barely know what I'm dealing with," the Brigadier reasoned.

"Think about it," Eleven told them. "Hathor feeds off love, familiarity-"

"- Not just love,"

"No. But she _does_ feed off it. You two barely know each other; there won't be any love between you two for her to feed off," he grinned.

"But you two know each other intimately," Alex pointed out.

Eleven smiled sadly. "Exactly." He led the way out of the carriage, with Three hurrying along in his wake.

"Well I suppose we'd better get to work," the Brigadier announced when they had gone. "Come along then."

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"No, no! This was in 1968!" the Brigadier insisted.

"Really? Well, they invaded in 2006 as well then,"

"Why would I know about an invasion in 2006?" Lethbridge-Stewart laughed.

"Ever heard of the TARDIS? It does this wonderful thing called time travel, y'see," Alex grinned cheekily, earning him a soft punch on the arm from the Brig.

"The things that man puts this planet through, eh?"

"The things he _saves_ this planet from, surely,"

The Brigadier shrugged. "That too," he smiled.

Their conversation was cut short by the violent sliding-open of a nearby door and the appearance of a fiery-faced women with equally fiery hair.

"Where's Rory?" Amy asked Alex furiously when she caught sight of him.

Alex frowned. "Not with you?" he asked nervously.

"No. Because if he was, I'd be knocking his _block off_," she replied angrily, shouting the last two words.

This worried Alex. He'd never seen Amy so livid with Rory before. "What's he done, Amy?" Alex asked, approaching her slowly and putting his hands on either of her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said irately, shrugging them off.

"Then why do you want to knock his block off?"

She faltered. "I don't know," she repeated. "I just feel... angry with him. I don't know why."

"Here's what I want you to do, Amy. I want you to start heading towards the front of the train. Just keep going. If you see Rory, fight your urges, and come back to us. If you don't, you should come to the Doctor. Tell him what you've told me, and stay with him. Okay?"

Amy nodded, slightly confused. She could see Alex was serious. She turned to leave, but stopped. "Who's this?" she asked, gesturing to the Brigadier.

"Friend of the Doctor's."

"Alex!" the Brigadier cried, jumping and charging towards the end of the carriage and the open door. Standing in the doorway was the figure of a woman. Even as they watched, she began to transform into a ball of light.

"Amy, go!" Alex called as he followed the Brigadier. With Hathor around, he had to put as much distance between himself and Amy as possible. They knew each other too well.

The Brigadier threw the door open when he reached it and he and Alex piled into the next carriage. Again, the door at the far end was sliding closed and again, the pair of them sprinted to the end of passed through the door. Through three more carriages, they eventually came to what seemed to be another storage one. It seemed huge. There were tens of wooden crates scattered around, almost forming a sort of maze. The Brigadier slowly un-holstered his pistol. He pointed at Alex, then towards one path through the crates. He then pointed to himself and towards the other path. He finished by forming a pair of scissors with his index and middle fingers. Finally, he nodded to question Alex's understanding. Alex slowly nodded back in reply. He had followed until the bizarre scissor motion.

Regardless, Alex began his hunt along his assigned path. As he snuck along by edge of the carriage, a great pulse of light erupted from the far end. It was his only clue, so Alex rushed towards it. Probably foolishly, he thought as he ran.

He hurtled around the corner and crashed into someone. He fell to the ground and looked up at his obstacle. It was a woman. A woman with blue hair and yellow skin. A woman with unusual facial make-up and an unusual orange dress.

"Hathor," Alex whispered, staring at her in shock.

"Hello Alex," she whispered ethereally.

"Brigadier!" Alex called urgently, glancing over Hathor's shoulder. He was nowhere to be seen.

"He won't hear you," Hathor told him. "I've temporarily blocked his mental capacities. If, by some miracle, he _does_ manage to find this spot, he'll walk right past without seeing or hearing us."

"Alistair," Alex tried again, raising his voice.

"It's no use, Alex," Hathor assured him, smiling eerily. When Alex didn't reply, she went on. "So. You've met Victoria? She was a lovely girl-"

"'Was' being the primary word?" Alex spoke up as Hathor began to pace.

"I _am_ sorry about that. I didn't mean for that to happen... but they were such a loving couple... I was drawn to them."

"You can't just steal people's emotions, Hathor!" Alex cried. "It doesn't work like that."

"_I_ can. Besides, I don't always steal them. Occasionally, they get thrust upon me. Like the gentlemen in the dining carriage. _That_ was entirely your doing."

"Alex?" asked a voice, whispering. Alex looked over Hathor's shoulder to see the Brigadier, crouching, with his pistol in his hand. "Can you hear me?" he asked. He made his way past Alex and away again.

"You see?" Hathor asked. "As a mutual friend of ours once stated, military intelligence is a contradiction in terms."

"What d'you need me for?" Alex asked, disregarding this last insult.

"You? I don't need you for anything. I need the Doctor. And I have a feeling you're going to stop me from doing that."

A low buzzing sound floated over from the other side of the carriage.

"Right on cue," Hathor smiled. Before Alex could protest, she swooped down on him. He braced himself, preparing for the worst. He felt a soft, yet strong hand grasp him by the neck and force him to look upwards. He kept his eyes screwed shut. He could feel Hathor's fragrant breath on his face...

And then felt her fragrant lips on his. Hathor... was kissing him. Okay, Alex thought, maybe she's poisoning me. But if she was, why would she keep it going this long? He found it impossible to pull away from her. Maybe the poison had a paralysing effect. Or maybe she was luring him into a false sense of security? Or maybe...

"Alex!" a majestic voice cried in shock.

Alex felt Hathor's mouth smile. She finally pulled away from him and dissolved into her small ball of light. She floated away and out of sight.

Alex bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. When he felt able, he looked up to see Osiris glaring at him with disappointment in his eyes.

"What were you doing?" he shouted angrily.

"She attacked me!" Alex protested, feeling his slightly numb mouth.

"Didn't seem to be a very aggressive attack," Osiris mocked, harshly.

"I don't know what to tell you," Alex said. "One moment she was going on about needing me out of the way, the next she's landed a big one on me,"

"I told you, Alex, Hathor cannot be allowed to feel the effects of love of _any kind_."

"I know!" Alex insisted. "I didn't do anything, I swear."

Osiris looked down at the ground and sighed. "I'm sorry. Whether that is true or not. Whether I believe you or not, it's irrelevant. I cannot take the risk that she has fallen for you." He raised his green staff. It had a shining orb on the end of it with a green hue. The hue was getting brighter. He lowered the staff and pointed the end of it directly at Alex's chest. "I am sorry," he repeated.


	51. The Seventh Obelisk: Three

_I'm sorry. Fortunately, my next two uploads will be pretty fast, since I'm behind schedule! Points go to people who pick up the references to Classic Who stories spread throughout this story!_

_Not too happy with how this one turned out, in all honesty. But then, I never am :p _

The Seventh Obelisk – Part Three

You have to admit, Alex thought as he gazed at his reflection in Osiris' staff-head, it was quite a way to go. Vaporised by the King of the Egyptian gods.

"I am sorry," Osiris repeated as the staff began to shine even more brightly.

"We'll be having none of that, thank you!" Eleven cried, running into the middle of the scene, Sonic in hand. He pointed it at the staff as he ran, causing the orb on the end of it to crack and crumble slightly. The shine faded away. Amy was rushing along behind him.

"Doctor!" Osiris cried in surprise.

"It'd be nice if you didn't obliterate my only living relative," the Doctor panted, catching his breath.

"Doctor, he ignored my warnings. He was kissing Lady Hathor. I do not want to destroy him, but I have no choice,"

The Doctor chuckled. "Is that it?"

"Doctor, you know that Hathor cannot be permitted to feel love of any kind," Osiris remarked sternly.

"If you think a kiss is a sign of love, then Hathor must love half the people on this train. She only kissed Rory a few minutes ago!"

"What?" Amy, Alex and Osiris all asked together.

Before the Doctor could continue, Osiris shrunk down into his orb of light and sped away from the three of them.

"Nice one. Now you've landed Rory in it," Alex told the Doctor, running after Osiris.

"You can thank me for saving you whenever you like," he replied.

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

The Doctor, Alex and Amy burst into the carriage and took in the scene before them. Rory was unconscious, sprawled out on the floor. The Brigadier – who, Eleven had told Alex, had returned to Three per his request – and Three himself were stood defensively in front of him and floating about a foot off the ground with his staff raised was Osiris.

"It would also be nice if you didn't kill him," Eleven noted.

"This man has done nothing to you," the Brigadier said in a warning tone, drawing his pistol. "Leave him alone."

"On the contrary, he has endangered the future of this entire planet."

"Oh don't exaggerate," Eleven laughed. "She's doing this on purpose, Osiris. She's trying to take us out, one-by-one. She's forcing you to destroy the only people who're going to help you catch her!"

As the Doctors and the Brigadier tried to reason with Osiris, Alex held back, keeping one hand on Amy's arm. He hadn't forgotten her violent feelings towards Rory.

"I want to hit him… but I want to kiss him," Amy whispered to him, staring intently at Rory's body. "This is weird."

"Maybe she didn't complete the process on you," Alex reasoned. "Maybe she didn't steal all of your love for Rory. And if there's still love there… Think, Amy. Think about all the reasons you love Rory. Why you went for him over any other boy in the universe."

"Amy…" Rory murmured, still half-unconscious.

"Think," Alex said again. "Remember. Prisoner Zero. Fish-vampires in Venice. Old people with eyes in their mouths. Rory the nurse. Rory the Roman. Rory the husband, your husband."

Amy nodded slowly, deep in thought.

"This is the man who waited for you… for two thousand years."

"… and after I'm through here, I must return to destroying Mr Morgan," Osiris was saying, throwing his staff down to the floor in anger. "And if either of you two gets in my way, I shall go back on my word and destroy you both, Doctors. Lady Hathor loves you too, she has shown that."

"Actually, if you want to see love," Alex interrupted, causing all eyes to turn to him. "You want to see this,"

"Stay away from my husband." Amy had appeared in front of Rory in a defensive position. The Doctors and the Brigadier parted as she raised Osiris' staff threateningly. The orb on the end of the staff burst in a shower of green sparks and glass. Osiris, now unarmed and threatened, transformed into his ball and fled. Amy held up the staff in shock, unsure what had happened. "What did I do?" she whispered.

"_You_ did nothing," Alex replied. Four pairs of eyes turned to him. In his hands, he held the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. Eleven frowned and frantically checked his empty jacket pockets. "_I_, however, used the Sonic to shatter the orb. Thought it might scare him off, buy us some time. I believe they call that teamwork, Miss Pond," he smiled at Amy.

"Mrs," Amy corrected, bending down at Rory's side and cradling his head in her hands, attempting to rouse him. While she did, the Doctors, the Brigadier and Alex formed a circle to discuss.

"Fighting off an Egyptian god to protect your husband, not bad," Eleven said appreciatively.

"Now that your friends have bought us some time, Doctor, perhaps we should decide on how we are to act?" the Brigadier said, focussed as always.

"Yes. Yes of course," Three replied. "Though I fear we may not be able to rely on Osiris' help anymore. Or any of the Pantheon for that matter."

"What if we could talk to her?" Eleven pondered. "I could find her a home…"

"What if she got out though?" Alex asked. "Into the world? Made it to… I dunno, say she makes it to the White House. The Oval Office. She'd be perfectly capable of taking the President's compassion for… everyone, for the entire planet. And then he's one button away from nuclear war,"

"Yes, he's got a point," the Brigadier agreed. He turned to Three. "Any ideas, Doctor?"

"Well perhaps, if we could get her back into the Obelisk," Three said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

"She escaped once," Eleven pointed out.

"Take the Obelisk somewhere remote," Alex suggested. "The Sahara. The Australian Outback. The Moon! Somewhere she won't be found."

Eleven looked saddened. "She's still a person, Alex."

"Define 'person'," the Brigadier muttered. "Besides, the plan works, and you'll have to execute it, Doctor." He took his radio out of his pocket and spoke into it. "Benton? I've got another job for you."

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"RORY!" Alex roared. "Please, just _forget. It_. It doesn't _MATTER_!"

"IT DOES TO ME!" he bellowed back. "I don't _care_ what you think! Will you _ever_ learn that?"

"Will _you_ ever learn to just, SHUT. UP?"

"Oh don't give me that!"

"Give you what?"

"That's the _best_ comeback you could think of? 'Shut up'? Are you _that_ childish?"

"So now you're trying to take the high ground on this one? You want childish? Fine! BIG. NOSE."

Rory lashed out, clipping Alex on his still-sore nose. Alex cried out and nursed it slightly. "Start heading back, I'll follow," he muttered as he did so.

Rory nodded, just slightly. Picking up the act again, he turned and strode arrogantly away towards the next carriage.

"Don't just walk away from me, Rory Williams!" Alex shouted after him. He regained his composure and followed. As he walked, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. She was near. "I said, _don't_ walk away from me," Alex repeated, seizing Rory's shirt collar from behind to stop him walking further forward. Behind him, Alex heard the carriage door slide shut and lock.

"I think a round of applause for our two lead actors," came Amy's voice. Alex turned and saw Amy clapping cheekily. It was she who had closed and locked the door. The orb of light that was Hathor shuddered slightly, then transformed into the yellow-skinned, blue-haired woman.

"So you _were_ acting?" Hathor asked Alex and Rory. "I _was_ unsure. No matter. I can take your _love_ for each other instead, and have you fight for real," she smiled maliciously.

"Aaaand, link-up," Eleven announced, waltzing into the centre of the carriage from the shadows. He was speaking into his steampunk communicator.

"Link-up," came Three's reply.

"Okay, Hathor. Give it a shot," Eleven smiled, putting an arm around Alex's shoulder. "Grandfather and grandson. Take our love from us."

Hathor frowned. She didn't seem angry. Intrigued, almost. "What have you done?"

"We've set up a damper on this entire carriage, generated by the TARDIS and linked from that to a portable beacon. This," he said cheerfully, taking the Sonic out of his pocket. "Everything you threaten us with. Taking our good and our bad emotions. Even your little transformation trick. They're all manipulation of electrical charges and impulses. And what does a damper do?"

"Cancels them out," Alex said triumphantly, arms folded.

Hathor was now beginning to look angry.

"Bring it in, boys," the Doctor called. The door at the far end of the carriage slid open. Three men in army uniform were hauling in a tall, slim, stone object. An obelisk.

"Alex, Amy, Rory? Allow me to introduce Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates, UNIT's finest. And Hathor… I believe you know what they're carrying?"

"Doctor, please," Hathor smiled. "It took almost the entire Pantheon to force me inside the Obelisk last time. What makes you think _you'll_ be able to do it?"

"Because last time… there was only one of me,"

As the Doctor spoke, a metallic grinding sound filled the room. Eight sets of eyes turned to the corner of the room, where the TARDIS was materialising.

"Whereas this time," Three said, opening the door and striding out. "There are two of us,"

"And our effectiveness is doubled,"

"But you still don't have the technology to force me into a _rock_!" Hathor cried. "The technology of the Pantheon is far beyond even you! So, if you don't mind…" Arrogantly, her with her nose in the air, she strode across the carriage, heading towards the open door at the far end. She stopped directly beside the Obelisk. She fidgeted on the spot and struggled. "What have you done, Doctors?" she asked angrily. "Let me go!"

"We didn't do anything. The Obelisk is still your prison, you're still inexplicably drawn to it. Besides, the Pantheon aren't the only ones with complicated technology," Eleven reminded her. "Time Lord tech."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look at the Obelisk, Hathor. Really, look." She did so. "It's an inch shorter than it should be."

"What have you done?" she repeated.

"I took a sample of the stone," Three announced, stepping forward. "I analysed it in the TARDIS, and it's really, rather fascinating, the properties it has. It has the ability to reattach and correct itself. If I were to hold the top of the Obelisk near to the main body of it, the Obelisk would fix itself."

"_So_?" Hathor spat. "It was a mechanism put in place so no-one could break me out!"

"Yes. But after analysing the sample, I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow. These two segments of the same object are now complete polar opposites. If I held the top of the Obelisk to the main body now… do you know what will happen?"

"Stay away from it," Hathor ordered immediately. "Please. I beg you, stay away from the Obelisk. Keep it away."

Three smiled. "Thank you very much. I was unsure what the result would be. You seem to have afforded me with the answer."

"No, I promise you! If those two pieces come into contact with each other, the results will be catastrophic for us both!"

"I'll risk it," Three smiled. He took one last step forward and placed the top of the Obelisk on the top of the main body.

_Bang_.

The small explosion shook the carriage. Smoke filled the room, and as a result, coughing and spluttering filled it too. The smoke and dust began to settle. Alex picked himself up from the floor and slid open a nearby window to clear the remnants of the smoke. He turned and took in the scene before him. The Obelisk was now fully intact. Hathor was nowhere to be seen – evidently, she was back in the Obelisk. On the other side of the carriage, Three was lying motionless on the floor. Amid the devastation, Eleven was stood near to Three, chuckling.

"That was never going to work," he smiled, picking up a small device from next to Three's body. "It's a regenerated TARDIS. My dematerialisation circuit wouldn't work in yours."

"Doctor, I don't think he can hear you," Rory said, checking Three's body as the nurse he was. He put his cheek against Three's mouth. "He's breathing. He's out cold, but he should be okay."

"He'll be fine," Eleven said, bending down to ruffle Three's grey-white curls. Sparks flew out from between them, causing all around the circle to jump back in surprise.

"What on Earth was that sir?" asked Benton or Yates. Alex wasn't sure which.

"Doctor?" the Brigadier asked, just as confused as Benton, or Yates.

"That was something extremely very not good," Eleven said ominously. "Careless, what am I doing? Makes a lot of sense though…"

"Doctor," Amy said, interrupting his external internal monologue.

Eleven looked up and noticed with genuine surprise that everyone was looking at him. "Sorry. Um. Time energy, that was time energy. Two people, the same person, from two different points in their own time stream touching. It's called the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. And I just discharged a large amount of it, directly by his brain…"

"Will he be okay?" the Brigadier asked, somewhat nervously.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. It normally wouldn't have an effect. He'd been weakened by the energy discharge from that," he explained, waving a hand towards the Obelisk. "He'll experience lacunar amnesia. A kind of short-term memory loss. He won't remember anything from the past few days, probably since the two of you boarded the Express."

"When will he wake?" asked Benton. Or Yates.

"Few hours?"

"Remember though, Doctor," Lethbridge-Stewart said, examining the Obelisk from afar. "You still have to carry out your part of the plan. What will you do with it?"

The Doctor took a deep breath, thinking. "Zero-balanced, dwarf star alloy. Densest material in the universe. She'll never get out of that."

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"Take the Doctor back to Mobile HQ, Benton," the Brigadier ordered. He'd used his UNIT credentials to persuade the train driver to stop at the 'nearest possible convenience'. "If he wakes up, tell him that the situation has been averted, but at the cost of a day or two of his memory."

"Yes sir," Benton replied, turning and rushing away to help his men carry the Doctor away.

"Tell me, Doctor," the Brigadier continued, turning to face Eleven, Alex, Amy and Rory. "Will he accept that?"

"Not inwardly," Eleven replied. "But outwardly, yeah. Is that a word? He'll know you'd have a good reason not to tell him the full story."

The Brigadier nodded, chuckling slightly. "And what about you lot now? Axos? Metebelis Three? 1947?"

"Honeymoon," Eleven grinned.

"Honeymoon?"

"Yeah. Honeymoon."

"Brigadier!" called a soldier from outside. He appeared at the door. "Helicopter's leaving in a few minutes, sir."

"Yes, thank you, Private." The man hurried away again. "It seems I have to go then. Wonderful to see you again, Doctor," the Brig said cheerfully, shaking his hand. "Mr Morgan," he continued, shaking Alex's. "Mr and Mrs Pond," he finished.

"Williams," Rory corrected. Amy stood on his foot.

"Goodbye Alistair," Eleven smiled.

"Splendid fellows," the Brigadier said to the Doctor as he turned to leave. "Both of you!"

The Doctor smiled as the Brigadier walked away. "We're not the only one," he murmured as he watched him go. He clapped his hands together. "Now! Centurion, do me a favour, grab the Obelisk and bring inside," the Doctor said, strolling whimsically towards the doors, Amy close behind, chuckling away. Alex smiled, shaking his head in despair.

T H E S E V E N T H O B E L I S K

"I couldn't remember meeting myself," Eleven explained as he coated the Obelisk in liquefied dwarf-star allow, "because I met myself."

"Nope. Not getting it," Rory replied.

"However many years ago, when I was him, _I_ reconnected the Obelisk, _I_ was weakened, _my_ brain was effected by the time energy caused by future me. If we'd never gone to the Express, I'd be able to remember being _him_ and fighting Hathor, clear as day!"

"Right…" Rory murmured, obviously still lost. The Doctor moved on, oblivious.

"So, honeymoon number two! Any preference?"

"I want to go on a cruise," Amy admitted.

"A cruise..?" the Doctor said quietly, in thought. His face split into a grin. "I can do that."


	52. Meanwhile: Nine

_Not much to say here so, uh… enjoy! :)_

Space and Time

"Okay you two," the Doctor shouted so that his voice would carry under the console. "You should find the couplings in the small cupboard down there. Where I got the whisk that time,"

Alex pulled the flimsy storage cupboard open and noticed some wires. "These things?" he shouted, pulling out the thin black wires and showing them to the Doctor through the glass.

"That's right. Rory, take them and plug them in like I told you. And Alex, I need you to take the rubber tube in there," he replied. "Stick the end of it in the oil pools, it should measure the aqua density of it and stuff." He lay back on the skateboard and rolled under the console, Screwdriver in hand. He began to whistle cheerfully.

Alex passed the couplings to Rory, who strung them through a loop in the mechanism of the under-controls. "How come you know how to do this then?" Alex asked.

"Oh, he told me when you and Amy went to the wardrobe. Something about me... y'know."

"What?" Alex asked, smiling cheekily, taking the tube out of the fragile locker. Rory muttered something about being the most sensible of the three of them. Alex chuckled and examined the tube in his hands. It was about a foot long, with a dial on one end, similar to a clock face. On the other was a metal spike, an inch or two long.

"Doctor?" Alex asked. "Do I put the met-" Alex stopped in his tracks as he looked up. Amy, in her characteristically short skirt, was standing almost directly above him. On a glass floor. Alex looked down at the oil pool immediately, forcing himself to continue looking down. _She's Rory's wife_! He told himself. Deciding to give it a try, while not wanting to tempt himself, he plunged the metal end into the main oil pool and waited, keeping his eyes locked fast on the multi-handed dial.

"ALEEEEX! RORYYYYY!" the Doctor shouted at the top of his voice. Deciding it safe to glance up (at the very least, he'd have an excuse to), Alex looked in the Doctor's direction. To his relief – and slight disappointment – Amy had bent down beside the Doctor, obscuring his view.

"You okay up there?" Rory asked, now wearing, Alex noticed, a pair of dark goggles. Alex suppressed a grin.

"Yep, fine! No problem!" the Doctor called. Amy got back to her feet. Alex's eyes shot back down to the device in his hands.

"What're you two doin'?" Amy asked them.

"Helping the Doctor?" Rory said. "Um, it's humming. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. We're just entering conceptual space. Imagine a banana, or anything curved. Actually don't, 'cos it's not curved, or like a banana, forget the banana! Alex, how's the oil?"

"Erm," Alex began, trying to make sense of the dial. "The big one's pointing at nine, the middle one at four, the... other middle one at six, the little one at minus seven. Is that okay?"

"Nine, four, six, minus seven..." muttered the Doctor. "Are you sure it's not nine, four, six, positive fourteen?"

"No, because it doesn't go up to 14?"

"Oh, that's a shame. Okay, well, minus seven's close enough."

"It's twenty-one away!"

"Do you know how that machine works, Alex?"

"No, but-"

"Well there we are then,"

"Are they helping you fly the TARDIS?" Amy interrupted, affronted.

"Okay, Rory, attach thermocouplings two, seven and eleven," the Doctor said, jumping up from his back and looking through the glass at Rory. "Like I showed you!"

"How come they get a go?" Amy asked, striding directly over Alex, who noticed.

"I'm coming up now!" he shouted, a little too forcefully. He jogged out from below the console and up the steps to visual safety.

"You never let me have a go!"

"Doctor, _don't_. Seriously. I let her drive my car once," Rory said, staring up at Amy.

"Yeah, to the end of the road..."

"Where, according to Amy, there was 'an unexpected house'."

Alex snorted with laughter and passed the tube to the Doctor, who took it with interest.

"Oh like you can talk!" Amy said, slapping Alex's arm. "He's told me all about you!"

"Like what?" Alex asked, leaning on the console and keeping his eyes firmly above Amy's waist.

"How many times did you take to pass?"

"F… four," Alex muttered defensively, crossing his arms.

Amy smiled smugly. "Rory, how many tests did I take?"

"Well-"

"How many?"

"Well, one, but-"

"Exactly. Passed first time."

"You cheated. You wore a skirt," Rory replied, standing his ground.

"I didn't wear a skirt,"

"Well that would've worked too-"

"No, no, I did wear a skirt," Amy agreed, "but it was any old skirt."

"You two ever seen Amy drive?" Rory called up as he attached a thermocoupling.

"Nope," the Doctor and Alex replied in unison.

"Neither did her driving examiner…"

"Actually… it was this one!" Amy said, chuckling. "It was this skirt!"

_Bang_

They were all thrown sideways as the TARDIS crashed suddenly. The lights flickered, and died, before being replaced by a blue-ish emergency lighting.

"What was that?" Amy whispered.

"Rory?" the Doctor called anxiously. "Did you drop a thermocoupling?"

Silence. Then, eventually, "S…sorry," came Rory's sheepish response.

The Doctor cried out in irritation. "How did you do that? I told you, don't drop them." He glared at Rory through the glass floor. "I specifically mentioned not dropping them!"

"It was my fault," Amy admitted.

"Of course it wasn't your fault," the Doctor said as he typed on the typewriter, trying to get power back.

"It kind of, kind of was her fault," Rory spoke up.

"How could it be her fault?" the Doctor cried. Alex noted that it was probably best to remain silent at this point.

"Because it was my skirt, and my husband, and your glass floor," Amy summarised. Spot on, thought Alex.

The Doctor looked at Amy's skirt, towards the floor, through it at Rory and back to Amy's face. Then he realised. "Ohh, _Rory_!"

"Sorry," he repeated.

"Well, we've landed," the Doctor went on, pulling a lever and making his way around the console. "Emergency materialisation, we should be fine; should've locked on to the safest place available. He pushed one more lever and the main lights fired up, unveiling the true extent of their 'safe' landing. The four of them gazed in shock and made their way towards it.

"H-h-how?" Alex asked, breaking his silence. Standing inside the TARDIS was… the TARDIS.

"Safest spot available," the Doctor reminded them. "The TARDIS has materialised inside itself."

"Is that supposed to happen?"

"Take a guess,"

"No?"

"That's the one." The Doctor slowly approached the box, extending his hand towards it.

"Well, what're you doing?" Amy asked as the Doctor stroked it slowly.

"I've absolutely no idea." With that, the Doctor pushed open the door to the box and stepped inside. He reappeared again by the interior doors, closing them behind him.

"_What_?" was all Alex could manage.

"Okay… that is a bit weird," Amy summarised.

As she spoke, the Doctor opened the door again and stuck his arm through it. The door to the box opened at the same time and an arm extended through it. Alex slowly walked towards the box, reached out and took the hand, shaking it.

"Can you feel that?" he asked the Doctor, who nodded. The hand grasped Alex's arm tightly and pulled. Alex fell through the TARDIS doors inside, just in time to see his legs fly into the box, where he'd just been standing. He was getting a headache.

Rory, however, chuckled. "That's actually pretty cool."

"Oh, I'm glad you're entertained, Rory," the Doctor said, stepping outside and emerging out of the box. "Now that we're stuck here for all eternity, at least you won't be _bored_." He strolled up the stairs to join them by the console. Alex followed.

"Whoa, what, we're stuck?" Amy asked in shock.

"The inside of the TARDIS is now joined to the outside of the TARDIS. Worse than a time loop; a space loop. Nothing can enter or leave this ship ever again," the Doctor explained ominously.

As he spoke, the interior doors swung open and a figure strode in. "Okay kids," said a second version of Amy. "This is where it gets complicated."

"Who the hell are you?" Amy One asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I'm you. From your future," Amy Two smiled suggestively.

"Tell me exactly what's happened," the Doctor ordered, obviously beginning to panic.

"Well, the exterior shell of the TARDIS has drifted forwards in time," Amy Two explained. "If you step into the box now, you step into the control room a tiny bit in the past," she smiled.

"I don't understand," said Amy One.

"Neither do I," Amy Two admitted in a whisper.

"But you just said it!"

"No, I'm just repeating it. I'm just remembering what I heard myself say when I was where you are now and repeating it. I'm just repeating this too. And this. And this."

"I still don't understand," Amy One complained, shaking her head.

"You still don't."

"Okay," the Doctor interrupted. "When does this Amy step inside the box? We need to maintain the time line."

"Ah! As soon as she's slapped Rory."

Alex snorted in laughter. Rory, however, wasn't pleased. "Hey, no. Why do I get slapped?"

"Because we have to stick to the established chain of events. One mistake and the entire time line could collapse, and we'd end up with two Amy Ponds forever, and then what would you do?" the Doctor asked him. Rory rose an eyebrow and glanced at Amy One suggestively. She gasped and slapped him around the face, hard.

Alex continued to giggle as the Doctor began to push Amy One towards the box.

"Dunno why you're laughin', you should be getting one too," Amy Two told him. "I know what you're thinking."

Alex tilted his head to one side as he looked at her and motioned an angelic halo in the air above his head.

"Okay you, into the police box, _now_," the Doctor was telling Amy One.

"What, and then I become her?" she asked.

"Yes! Go, go, go!" the Doctor ordered frantically.

She turned to push the door open, then stopped. She'd caught sight of her doppelgänger. "Do I really look like that?" Amy One asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Yeah you do," Amy Two smiled.

Amy One smiled appreciatively. "I'd give you a driving license."

"I bet you would," Amy Two winked.

The Doctor groaned. "This is how it all ends. Pond flirting with herself, true love at last. Oh. Sorry, Rory."

"Absolutely no problem at all…"

"_NOW_, Amy."

Amy One turned to herself again. "What's the first line?"

"'Okay kids, this is where it gets complicated'" Amy Two replied.

"Gotcha," she winked, and stepped inside the box.

"So, is that it?" Amy asked as her other self disappeared. "Are we okay now?"

"No. We're still trapped."

The control room doors opened again. Amy Two _and_ Rory Two appeared.

"What're you doing?" the Doctor asked in despair.

"You told us to get into the police box," Rory Two explained. "Well, from your point of view, you're about to tell us to get into the police box. From our point of view you just told us to get into the police box, which is why we got in the police box, which is why we're… here."

"Do I have to remember all that?" Rory One asked.

"It just sort of, happens," Rory Two replied.

"Hi," Amy One murmured, waving at herself. Amy Two returned the gesture.

"Oi!" the Doctor cried. "Stop that. You two, in the police box, now!" he said, pushing them towards the box.

"You might want to go as well," Amy Two told Alex as Amy One and Rory One disappeared inside.

"Why?" Alex asked.

The doors opened again. Alex Two stepped inside the room. Amy and Rory parted to allow him to stand between them. "In you go," he told Alex One, waving towards the box.

"Oh," Alex moaned as the Doctor wordlessly pushed him towards the box. He pushed the doors open and stepped inside the control room. Amy and Rory parted to allow him to stand between them. "In you go," he told his other self, who was standing near the console, looking rather shocked.

"Oh," Alex's other self grumbled. The Doctor pushed him towards the box. He stepped inside and was gone.

"So? What now?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"All three of you stay exactly where you are," the Doctor ordered, rushing around the console, pulling levers and pressing buttons, seemingly at random. "I'm setting up a controlled temporal implosion; it's the only way to reset the TARDIS. But unless I find exactly the right lever to control the implosion… we're all gonna die!"

"You don't know which lever?" Amy asked in despair.

"No," the Doctor admitted. "But I'm about to find out," he smiled, looking expectantly towards the doors.

The doors swung open once more. The Doctor Two stepped into the room and barged his way through Alex, Amy and Rory. "The Wibbly Lever!" he announced.

"The Wibbly Lever, thank you!" Doctor One cried, pulling a specific lever and then heading towards the police box. He threw the doors open and stepped inside. As soon as he did so, the light on top of the box began to flash. The engines grinded and thrummed. A few seconds later, it had dematerialised. It was as if it had never been there.

"Okay, we're back in normal flight," the Doctor said when it had gone. He turned and put an arm around Amy's shoulder. "The TARDIS is no longer inside itself, the localised time field is no longer about to implode and rip a hole in all causality, but just in case… Pond, put some trousers on."


	53. Meanwhile: Ten

_Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to Doctor Who: Series Fiiiiive! Happy Birthday to you!_

_Yes, a year ago today I uploaded chapter one, The End of Time :) That was the precursor to series 5. Today, I upload Meanwhile in America, the precursor to series 6! Enjoy._

Meanwhile in America

"It's like nothing ever happened," Alex noted, glancing round the hotel lobby. People were milling around, suitcases and bags at hand, chatting away perfectly cheerfully, barely acknowledging their newfound mortality.

"It always is. It's easier for them, that way," Jack replied wisely. He took a deep breath and turned to Alex. "Heard anything from him yet?"

Alex shook his head. "Nothing… you'd think he'd have heard about all this,"

"Maybe he knew you could handle it," Jack grinned, his teeth shining bright as ever. Alex chuckled.

"Boys. Our cab's here," Rhys said, rushing into the lobby to find them.

"Let's go home," Jack said picking up his bag. Alex followed suit.

"Excuse me," said a man. They turned to look. It was the receptionist from the hotel. "Sorry to bother you. Is one of you a Mr. Alex Morgan?"

"That's me," Alex said, bemused.

"This was delivered for you a moment ago," the man said, handing Alex a blue envelope. It had Alex's name on it, followed by the hotel address and even Alex's room number.

"Who's it from?" Jack asked the receptionist.

"I don't know. It wasn't handed to me," he replied as he hurried away to see to a queue forming at the desk.

"TARDIS blue," Jack pointed out as Alex inspected the envelope. "Rhys. Go tell the driver to give us a few minutes."

Rhys sighed and rushed back to the cab. Intrigued, Alex turned it over. On the back, printed in silver, was a large number 3. He ripped it open. Inside was a small card, about the size of a small postcard. It read;

22/04/2011

16:30 MDT

_37_°_0'38_''_N 110_°_14'34_''_W_

"April 22nd, that's three days from now," Jack said, having read the note over Alex's shoulder. "The map reference takes you to…" he stopped and typed it into his Vortex Manipulator. "Utah, Valley of the Gods."

"Sounds like the middle of nowhere?" Alex asked.

"It is. At least ten miles to the nearest town in any direction… you're gonna struggle without a car."

"I'm..? You're not coming?"

"It's not addressed to me, Alex. He wants you, and whoever else got one of those envelopes. Not me."

Alex frowned. He looked down at the envelope in his hands, the colour reminiscent of what he had come to think of as home. He'd give anything to see it and its owner again. He looked back up at Jack. "Thank you, Jack."

"Thank _you_," Jack replied, grinning his 'Jack-grin' again, as Alex had dubbed it. Jack pulled Alex into a friendly hug, bade him farewell and good luck, and left. Alex waved the taxi off. He then picked up his bag and joined the end of the queue for the reception desk. He'd be needing his hotel room back.

M E A N W H I L E I N A M E R I C A

The taxi pulled up at LAX airport. Alex paid his fare and got out of the car, making his way to arrivals. He chuckled to himself as the various passengers appeared, bleary-eyed and stumbling, exhausted from the long journey. One among them, however, was energetic as ever.

"Alex!" Amy screeched, rushing through the crowds towards him. Rory followed in her wake, carrying two large camping rucksacks on his back.

"Amelia Pond!" Alex cried, picking her up and spinning around as they hugged tightly. "Been a while since we've seen each other, Miss Pond,"

"Mrs," Amy corrected, slapping him on the arm.

"That's right!" Alex said cheerfully, turning to Rory. "And here's the husband!"

"Alex!" Rory greeting cheerfully, both giving the other a friendly hug.

"Let's see it then?" Amy asked as they pulled away.

Alex reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his envelope. At the same time, Rory produced theirs. They seemed to have one between them.

"Exactly the same," Alex noted, comparing the cards inside.

Rory didn't seem too interested. "You got a hotel lined up? I'm knackered," he moaned, passing Amy her gigantic rucksack to alleviate some of the weight.

M E A N W H I L E I N A M E R I C A

"Want a drink?" Alex called as Rory left the hotel room. Amy was sitting at the table on the balcony. "Aaaanything you want from the minibar, all courtesy of Torchwood," he grinned.

Amy glanced at him questioningly for a moment or two, before saying, "Just a Coke. Thanks."

"Honestly, you can have anything. Glass of wine, or..?"

"I can't," she replied apologetically.

Alex frowned. He seized a coke from the fridge and stepped outside. He passed the drink to Amy and sat down. "Why not?"

Amy glanced at him. She looked troubled. "You need a shave."

"Don't change the subject. Why not?" Alex repeated, a vague idea of why not forming in his mind. He glanced at Amy's hand, absent-mindedly rested on her stomach. "You're not..?" She looked at him again, emotionless. Her face gave nothing away. It didn't need to. "Are you..?"

She nodded.

Alex laughed. "Seriously?" he grinned, placing his drink on the table. "A little Amy, running around Leadworth?"

She nodded again.

"But that's brilliant!" Alex cried, getting to his feet and pulling Amy to her feet too. "Isn't that brilliant?" he asked her. She didn't seem to think so. "Amy? Isn't that brilliant?"

After an eternity, her face softened. It split into a smile. "Yeah," she agreed, chuckling. They hugged tightly

"Congratulations Miss Po- _Mrs_ Pond," Alex smiled. He heard the door to the room open. Rory had returned. "Rory!" he called. "We're celebrating! Drinks are on-"

"Shut up," Amy whispered harshly, interrupting. "He doesn't know yet."

"Why not?"

"Yeah?" Rory asked, appearing at the balcony door, looking from Amy to Alex. Amy nonchalantly took a sip of her drink and looked out into the distance.

"Nothing," Alex lied. "Did you get it then?" he asked, leading Rory back inside.

"Yep," he replied, holding up a large map book. "Complete map of Utah, got it from the guy behind the desk."

"So we land…" Alex began, scouring the first map, "here, Salt Lake City tomorrow at… some time,"

"11:14," Amy's voice floated in from outside.

"11:14," Alex agreed. "And the map co-ordinates are… around here?" he said questioningly, pointing to an area marked 'Valley of the Gods'.

"Yeah." Rory flicked through the map book to a more detailed view of the area. "There. Obviously, there's nowhere near for miles,"

"We'll have to rent a car then," Alex mused.

"Nope. I've got a better idea," Rory smiled.

M E A N W H I L E I N A M E R I C A

"How the hell did you manage to swing this?" Alex asked as he, Rory and Amy boarded a classic, yellow school bus.

"Because he's my husband," Amy smiled, tousling Rory's hair like a small boy.

"There's a small town in that direction," Rory said, ignoring Amy and nodding in front of them. "No school or anything there, so the kids from that town come to this town's school. This bus goes directly past where the co-ordinates take us,"

"Genius," Alex said, impressed, as they took a seat and waited for the driver to drive on.


	54. The Impossible Astronaut: One

_Welcome to Series Six! :) Thanks for all your fantastic feedback on the entirety of Series 5 – I think I only had one negative review, and over 200 positives! Here's hoping for a repeat performance._

The Impossible Astronaut – Part One

One solitary asphalt road, one of the only indications of any kind of civilisation for miles around. Alex gazed out of the window of the school bus in wonder at the colossal, incredible sandstone rock formations, hundreds of metres high, made even more impressive by the dying light of the slowly-setting sun. It was a sight to behold.

"I'd say we're about here," called the driver to Amy, Alex and Rory. As one, they rose from their chairs and uncertainly made their way towards the front of the bus. The doors whooshed open and they stepped outside into the searing desert heat.

"Thanks!" Amy called over her shoulder.

"Very welcome," came the reply. The doors closed again and the bus pulled off.

"This is it, yeah?" Amy asked, glancing around. "Right place?"

"Uh, nowhere? Middle of? Yeah. This is it."

"How would the driver even know this is where to stop?" Alex mused, once more staring out at the expanse in front of him.

"Howdy," called a familiar voice. The three of them spun on the spot to be met with quite a sight. The Doctor, Stetson and all, was lying on the bonnet of a classic, bright-red car.

"Doctor!" Amy cried with pleasure.

The Doctor laughed and leapt up from the bonnet as the three of them rushed across the road. "Here you are! The Ponds and Mini-Me! C'mere!" he cried, wrapping his arms tightly around Alex.

"Doctor!" Alex cried happily as the Doctor half-choked him.

"Well done!" he said proudly. Alex frowned in confusion. "I knew you could handle it!" He released Alex and turned to Amy.

"So someone's been a busy boy then!"

"Did you see me?" he asked happily

"Of course!"

"Ha. Stalker."

"Flirt."

"Husband," Rory interjected, raising a hand.

"And Rory the Roman!" he cheered, turning to Rory. "Come 'ere!" They hugged warmly, all four of them chuckling.

"Hey, nice hat," Rory complimented when they'd finished, gesturing to the Stetson on the Doctor's head.

"I wear a Stetson now; Stetsons are cool."

The Doctor's hat flew off his head, following what sounded like a small explosion. They all jumped in shock. Turning slowly towards the source of the noise, they were met with the figure of one River Song.

"Hello Sweetie," she smiled, blowing the smoke away from the barrel of her gun.

T H E I M P O S S I B L E A S T R O N A U T

The Doctor surprised them all by flawlessly driving them to a nearby diner, even abiding all road safety laws. Amy and Rory took orders and headed to the bar, whilst the Doctor, River and Alex took a seat at one of the tables.

"So, you know about the Time Lord gene now," River said, smiling. It was a statement, not a question.

"What if I _didn't_ know about it yet, and you telling me just then was how I found out?" Alex asked, smirking.

"Because you told me how you found out," River smiled. "And it wasn't like that."

"Time can be rewritten," Alex shot back. "But yeah, River. I know."

"Speaking of time," River said as she took out her diary from her pocket, "shall we do diaries?" she asked the Doctor.

Alex raised an eyebrow as the Doctor took a similar diary out of his inside jacket pocket. That was new.

"Have we done Easter Island yet?" River asked.

The Doctor flicked through the pages, seemingly at random. "Yes! I've got Easter Island," he grinned eventually.

"They _worshipped_ you there! Have you seen the statues?"

"Jim the Fish," the Doctor said appreciatively, eliciting a chuckle from Alex. Amy and Rory returned to the table. Amy passed him his drink and took a seat next to the Doctor. Rory pulled up a chair from the bar and sat at the end of the table.

"Oh, Jim the Fish! How is he?"

"Still building his dam," the Doctor muttered.

"Sorry. What are you two doing?" asked Rory, bemused.

"They're both time travellers, so they never meet in the right order," Amy explained. "They're syncing their diaries. So what's happening then?" she asked the Doctor as he took a sip through the straw in his drink. "'Cos you've been up to something."

The Doctor smiled strangely. Was it sad? "I've been running. Faster than I've ever run… and I've been running my whole life. Now it's time for me to stop."

"What from?" Alex whispered.

"You'll see." There was that smile again. "So tonight, I'm going to need you all with me."

"Okay," Amy agreed immediately. "We're here, what's up?"

"A picnic! And then a trip. Somewhere different; somewhere brand new."

"Where?"

"Space. 1969."

T H E I M P O S S I B L E A S T R O N A U T

"Lake Silencio," Alex muttered, reading Rory's map. The vast lake was spread out in front of him, at the bottom of the sand dune. The Doctor and River were already merrily on their way down the hill. "Why here?" he asked.

"Why Utah, full stop?" Amy reasoned. Alex shrugged in agreement and began to traipse down the hill.

The Doctor flopped down onto the sand and lay there as the rest of them lay out a blanket on the ground and took food from the basket. The rest of them knelt down in a circle and relaxed. The Doctor leaned over and extracted an old bottle of wine from it, as well as four glasses, which he handed round.

"Napoleon gave me this bottle," he mentioned as he filled up River's glass. "Well, y'know, I say gave… threw… salute!" he called, raising the bottle cheerfully.

"Salute!" the rest of them replied, the tinkling of their glasses filling the air.

"So, when _are_ we going to 1969?" Rory asked, taking a sip from his glass.

"Since when do you drink _wine_?" Amy interrupted.

"I'm 1103, I must've drunk it some time," the Doctor reasoned. He was indeed necking back the bottle. He grimaced, sat up and spat out a mouthful onto the sand next to him. "Wine's horrid! I-I- I thought it'd taste more like the gums."

"Eleven hundred and three?" Alex asked incredulously, when he'd stopped chuckling. "You haven't changed _at all_ in… 195 years?"

"You were 908 last time we saw you," Amy added.

"And you've put on a couple of pounds. I wasn't gonna mention it. And you, dear boy, need a shave."

"Why do people keep saying that?" Alex asked, feeling his chin and upper lip. Slight stubble. "You're the fourth person,"

"Probably because you need a shave," Rory pointed out.

"Who's that?" Amy asked distantly.

They all glanced at Amy. "Who's who?" asked Rory.

"Sorry, what?" Amy replied.

"What did you see? You said you saw someone,"

"No I didn't,"

"Ah! The moon! Look at it!" the Doctor said, more to interrupt than anything else. "Of course, you lot did more than look, didn't you? Big silvery thing in the sky, you couldn't resist it… quite right."

"The moon landing was in '69… is that where we're going?"

"Oh, a lot more happens in '69 than anyone remembers," the Doctor murmured. There was that mysteriously sad tone again. "Human beings… I thought I'd never get done saving you."

Alex and River exchanged concerned glances.

Before anyone replied, the Doctor got to his feet. He raised a hand in greeting. Following his eye line, Alex noticed a large silver car had arrived at the top of the dune. An elderly man was standing next to it, his hand raised in a similar greeting.

"Who's he?" Amy asked.

"Oh, my God…" River muttered, gazing at the lake. Alex followed her eye line and gasped. Standing in the lake, as if it were a child paddling in the surf, impossibly, was an astronaut.

"What the hell is that doing there?" Alex muttered, mainly to himself. The Astronaut breathed slowly, not dissimilar to Darth Vader… or perhaps not dissimilar to a normal astronaut.

"You all need to stay back," the Doctor ordered, stepping forward and dropping Napoleon's bottle. "Whatever happens now, you do not interfere. Clear?"

"What is it?" Alex implored of the Doctor. He didn't reply and began to stride towards the lake.

"An astronaut..? That's an Apollo astronaut in a _lake_,"

"_Look_," Amy muttered.

The Doctor arrived at the lakeside and sized up to the Astronaut. They were too far away to hear specifics, but it seemed like the Doctor was talking. The Astronaut lifted its visor. Whoever was inside was talking back.

"River..? Any ideas what that is?" Alex asked, watching anxiously.

"No idea," she replied. "Do what he said though… stay back."

"What's he doing?" Amy whispered as the conversation continued. The Astronaut raised an arm. Alex guessed what was going to happen, milliseconds before it did. A great burst of green energy exploded from the Astronaut's arm, striking the Doctor square in the chest and throwing his back. "_Doctor_!" Amy screeched, beginning to run towards him. River and Rory seized an arm each and held her back. Alex was rooted to the spot, staring at the proceedings in horror, eyes wide, his mouth open, without him even remembering opening it. He couldn't move.

"No," Alex whispered as the Doctor staggered to his feet. A familiar golden energy was seeping out of the Doctor's sleeves. "Don't go, not again," he pleaded. The golden flow reached full flow and exploded out of him, just as it had last time.

The Astronaut raised its arm again. Again, Alex saw it coming and snapped out of it. He found himself running as fast as he could to where the Doctor was lying. He'd been shot again, the regeneration process cut short. River, Amy and Rory were hot on his heels. Alex skidded to a halt, sending a spray of sand into the lake. He cradled the Doctor's limp head. River arrived, removed her machine from her pocket and scanned him. Alex put his ear to the left of the Doctor's chest, then to the right. Silence.

"_River_?" Amy begged.

She slowly looked up at the three of them, her scan complete. She got to her feet, stepped over the Doctor's body and removed her pistol from its holster. She opened fire five shots on the Astronaut as it slowly retreated back into the depths of Lake Silencio.

"You're a nurse; help him!" Alex ordered Rory, tears welling in his eyes. He blinked them away.

"There's nothing he can do," River whispered as the Astronaut disappeared below the surface.

"River, he can't be dead," Amy whimpered, curled up in a ball next to the Doctor's body, tears running down her cheeks. "This isn't possible…"

"Whatever that thing was, it killed him in the middle of his regeneration cycle," River explained, strong as ever. "His body was already dead… he didn't make it to the next one."

"Maybe he's a clone, or a duplicate or something'"

"I believe I can save you some time," said a gruff, elderly voice. The man from the top of the dune had arrived at the bottom. He removed his baseball cap in respect. "That most certainly is the Doctor… and he is most certainly dead."

"And who're you?" Alex asked hoarsely, still sitting at the Doctor's head, knees in his arms.

"A friend," the man assured him. He leaned forward and placed a red tank on the ground next to his body. "He said you'd need this."

"'Gasoline'?" Rory read off the side of it in confusion.

River closed her eyes in realisation. "A Time Lord's body is a miracle. Even a dead one. There are whole empires out there who'd rip this world apart from just one cell. We can't leave him here… or anywhere."

"Wake up," Amy begged, holding the Doctor's head, her tears dripping onto his unmoving face. "C'mon, wake up, you stupid, bloody idiot… What do we do Rory?"

"We're his friends. We do what the Doctor's friends always do…" River said, taking command and picking up the tank. "As we're told."

"There's a boat," Rory pointed out, looking along the shore of the lake. "If we're gonna do this… let's do it properly."

Rory and River set out to fetch the boat while the man groaned and sat down on the sand, a fair distance away. Amy continued to weep over the Doctor's body. Alex stayed sat at the Doctor's head. He wasn't crying. He wasn't showing any emotion at all. He was lost. If a stranger were to happen upon the scene, they might think that he was deep in thought. They'd be wrong. Alex's mind was blanker than it had ever been. He didn't know how long it had been when River and Rory returned with the boat. Time had lost all meaning. Rory bent down to lift the Doctor into a fireman's lift.

"I'll do it," Alex said suddenly, putting out a hand to block Rory's. Rory stepped back in respect. He put an arm around Amy who finally pulled away from the Doctor's body and buried herself in Rory's arms.

Alex heaved the Doctor from the ground as gracefully as he could and half-carried, half-dragged him to the boat. He positioned him so that he might be sleeping.

"Okay," Alex whispered as he worked. "You're dead. You're dead. You're _not_ dead. But you _are_ dead. Why are you dead? You shouldn't be dead, you _can't_ be dead…" Alex paused and took a deep breath. "You said you've been running all your life. You _never_ mentioned anything like that… I could've helped, _we_ could've helped… Why are you dead..? This is some stupid… self-sacrificing rubbish isn't it? You died to save us, is that it? Tell me I'm wrong… Please… Just wake up, and tell me I'm wrong. Wake up and tell me I'm _right_, I don't care! Just wake up. Please…"

Alex jumped as someone put their hand on his shoulder. "Ready?" River asked softly.

Alex sighed and nodded slowly. He reached out and straightened the Doctor's bow-tie, took a deep breath and turned away. He closed his eyes tightly as he heard the slight splashing noises as River doused the Doctor's body in the fuel. Splashing sounds as Rory waded into the lake and pushed the boat out slightly. A striking noise as River lit a match. Alex covered his ears, but still heard the roaring _whoosh_ as the flames engulfed the boat and its contents.

The four of them watched as the boat drifted from the shore. Thankfully, the flames obscured their view of the body. The sun was setting. The flames were fast becoming the only light source in the area.

"Who are you?" River eventually asked, breaking the silence. Alex got to his feet and turned to hear the man's answer. "Why did you come?"

"Same reason as you," the man smiled, removing a blue envelope from inside his coat. River's eyes widened. She removed her envelope from her jacket. "Doctor Song," the man greeted. He turned to the rest of the group. "Alex. Amy. Rory… I'm Canton Everett Delaware III. I won't be seeing you again. But, you'll be seeing me." He tipped his hat in respect once more, then picked up his gasoline tank and began to head back to his car at the top of the dune.

"Canton…" Alex murmured thoughtfully as he watched the man go.

T H E I M P O S S I B L E A S T R O N A U T

"The Doctor numbered the envelopes," River explained as they pulled up outside the diner that they had had coffee in, a million years ago. "You two were four, Alex, three, I got two, Mr Delaware was five."

"So?" Rory asked as they stepped inside.

"So where's one?"

"You think he invited someone else?"

"You okay?" Alex murmured to Amy, who was staring into space, shaking just slightly.

She slowly turned her head to look at him. "He's gone," she whispered.

"I know," Alex nodded. "But we never got to '69… the fight's not over, Amy."

"Who says we're ever getting there? He's _dead_,"

"But he still needs us," River interrupted, having overheard. "I know. Amy, I know. We all do. But right now, we _have_ to focus,"

"Look," Rory said slowly, pointing to a table at the far end of the diner. Lying, discarded on the table was a blue envelope, next to a bottle of something.

"'Scuse me, who was sitting over there?" Rory asked the guy at the counter.

"Some guy," he replied unhelpfully.

"The Doctor knew he was going to his death," River reminded the three of them. "So he sent out messages. When you know it's the end, who do you call?"

"Your friends, people you trust,"

"Number One," she said, holding up the envelope, which sported a silver one. "Who did the Doctor trust the _most_?"

The door to the back of the diner creaked open. Nonchalantly strolling in, the Doctor noticed them all and grinned, pointing to each of them individually, a plastic straw sticking ludicrously out of his mouth.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"This is cold," River told him. "Even by your standards, this is _cold_."

"Or 'hello' as people used to say," the Doctor shrugged. "Just popped out to get my special straw… it adds more fizz,"

From the back of the group, Amy slowly approached him and circled him, taking him in. "You're okay… how can you be okay?"

The Doctor was quite clearly baffled. "Hey, of course I'm okay," he assured her, hugging her. "I'm always okay, I'm the King of Okay… ooh, that's a rubbish title, forget that title. Rory the Roman, that's a good title!" he cried, releasing Amy and landing himself on Rory. "Hello Rory!"

"D-Doctor," Rory stuttered, flustered.

"And my own little part Time Lord," the Doctor continued, turning to Alex and wrapping his arms around him happily.

"G-good to, see you," Alex stammered, equally confused.

"And finally, Doctor River Song," he smiled. "Oh, you bad, bad girl, what trouble have you got for me this time?"

She replied by promptly slapping him round the face. Alex winced. The _slap_ sound was quite spectacular.

"Okay," the Doctor muttered, repositioning his face, "I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet,"

"Yes it is," River replied venomously.

"Good, looking forward to it."

"I don't understand," Rory admitted, hands in the air. He reached forward and poked the Doctor's chest. "How can you be here?"

"I was invited!" he said, snatching his envelope out of River's hands. He removed the card from inside. "Date. Map reference. Same as you lot, I assume, otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence."

"River, what's going on?"

"Amy, ask him what age he is," River ordered.

"Bit personal…"

"Tell her. Tell her what age you are."

"Nine hundred and nine,"

"So where does that leave us, huh? Jim the Fish? Have we done Jim the Fish yet?"

The Doctor smirked, struggling to keep down a laugh. "Who's Jim the Fish?"

"I don't understand," Amy admitted.

"It's pretty straightforward, Amy," Alex said, sitting at the table with his face in his hands. "It's just… sort of… impossible. And ridiculous." He looked up at the Doctor again. "What are you doing here?"

"You tell me,"

Alex, Amy, Rory and River exchanged glances. How much were they allowed to say?

"We've been recruited," River began. "Something to do with space, 1969… and a man, called Canton Everett Delaware III."

"Recruited by who?" the Doctor asked, beginning to pace.

"Someone who trusts you more than anyone else in the universe,"

The Doctor frowned. "And who's that?"

"Spoilers," River smiled sadly.


	55. The Impossible Astronaut: Two

_I warned you! I said I wouldn't be uploading particularly frequently. I had no idea if would be this long though, so I apologise. Hopefully, you'll take me back! Here we go with Part Two. Oh, and excuse any spelling or grammar errors here. It's late, I can't be bothered to proof read, and it's already been too long since an upload!_

The Impossible Astronaut – Part Two

The Doctor had always been a mystery. As he was led towards the TARDIS, Alex genuinely couldn't tell whether the Doctor was excited by the prospect of the mystery invitation or apprehensive. But then, this was the Doctor. He was probably both.

"1969, that's an easy one," the Doctor was saying happily, dancing around the console. "Funny how some years are easy! Now 1482 – full of glitches," he said to Amy. As he turned away, Amy sulked off down below the console. "Now, Canton Everett Delaware III, that was his name, yeah? How many of them can there be? Well… three, I suppose,"

"Technically, only one," Alex pointed out as River rolled her eyes and went to join Amy. "Three Canton Everett Delawares. One the third. " Alex caught Rory's eye and nodded his head towards Amy. He got the message and followed after River.

"Oh… shut up," the Doctor replied. "Why are you always so literal? Now…" he paused as he realised Rory had now also disappeared and only Alex remained. "Is everyone cross with me for some reason?"

"Spoilers," Alex muttered, slinking away as the Doctor frowned and worked on the console.

"… all that's still gonna happen," Amy was saying as Alex arrived. "He's still gonna die." She was sitting on the floor between two oil pools.

"We're all going to do that, Amy," River pointed out.

"We're _not_ all going to arrange our own wake and invite ourselves," Rory muttered. "So, the Doctor, in the future, knowing he's going to die, recruits his younger self, and all of us to… to what, exactly? Avenge him?"

River shook her head. "Avenging's not his style,"

"Save him?" asked Amy.

"That's not his style either,"

"_Dying's_ not his style," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "He could want anything from us, and he didn't give us a single decent clue. Ever heard of this Delaware bloke?" he asked River.

"Could be anybody," she replied, shaking her head again.

"Well we have to tell him," Amy said, standing up.

"We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self… he's interacted with his own past! He could rip a hole in the universe!"

"Except he's done it before!"

"And in fairness, the universe _did_ blow up,"

"But he'd want to know!"

"Would he? Would anyone?"

The Doctor's head popped out from above. He was hanging down from the console, cutting their whispered conversation short. "I'm being extremely clever up here, and there's no-one to stand around looking impressed. What's the point in having you all?" He sulkily pulled his head back up.

"Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?" River muttered as they made their way towards the steps.

"River, we can't just let him die. We have to stop it… Alex. You're his grandson, you can't be okay with this. None of you can! River…"

"The Doctor's death doesn't frighten me," River revealed. "Nor does my own. There's a far worse day coming for me…"

Alex, able to hazard a guess at what that day might be, hurried away up the steps. Rory, River and, eventually, Amy, followed in his wake.

"Time isn't a straight line," the Doctor told them when they reached the console level. "It's all bumpy-wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff, like Sundays, and Tuesdays, and _Thursday afternoons_… But now and then there are Saturdays! Big, temporal tipping points where anything's possible. TARDIS can't resist them: like a moth to a flame. She loves a party. So I give her 1969, and NASA – because that's space in the 60s – and Canton Everett Delaware III, and this is where she's pointing." With a flourish he typed a few keys on the typewriter and showed them the scanner.

"Washington DC, April 8th 1969," Amy read off the screen. "So why haven't we landed?"

"Because that's not where we're going," the Doctor smiled.

"Home!" Well you three are, off you pop and make babies. Alex, go make me a grandchild and you, Doctor Song, back to prison, and me? I'm late for a bi-plane lesson in 1911. Or it could be knitting. Knitting or bi-plane, one or the other." As he spoke, the Doctor's voice became gradually more laboured and irritable. He finished by slumping down in one of the chairs with a face like thunder. Amy, Rory, River and Alex exchanged glances as the Doctor put his face in his hands. "What?" he asked, noticing their looks. "A mysterious summons, you think I'm just going to go? Who sent those messages?" He looked at each face individually. "I know you know, I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me, don't ever, ever think you're capable of that."

"You're going to have to trust us, this time," River interrupted.

"Trust you?" the Doctor asked incredulously, getting out of his seat. "Sure. But first of all, _Doctor_ Song, just one thing… who are you? You're someone from my future, getting that, but who..?" He stared into her face coldly. She silently held his gaze. "Okay…" he yielded. "Why are you in prison? Who did you kill? Hm?" Still nothing. "Now I love a bad girl, me. But trust you? Seriously?"

"Trust me," Amy interjected, breaking the stony silence. The Doctor held River's stare for a few seconds more then turned to Amy, agreeing. "You have to do this… and you can't ask why."

"Are you being threatened," the Doctor asked angrily, looking from face to face again, "is someone making you say that?"

"No,"

"You're lying,"

"I'm not lying."

"Swear to me," the Doctor ordered. "Swear to me on something that matters."

Amy swallowed nervously before smiling slightly. "Fish fingers and custard." Alex's memory shot back to the small kitchen in Leadworth, so long ago. Apparently, so did the Doctor's.

"My life in your hands," he whispered. "Amelia Pond…"

"Thank you," River muttered to Amy as the Doctor returned to the monitor.

"So!" the Doctor said, happy and up-beat once more. "Canton Everett Delaware III! Who's he?" River bumped the Doctor out of the way and began searching the TARDIS database. "I _can_ do it!" he said indignantly.

"You do it all the time; I only get a go when I break out of prison! Now… Delaware III. Early 1969… Ex-FBI. Got kicked out."

"Why?"

"Doesn't say, not in detail… personnel issues… problems with authority. Six weeks after he left the Bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting."

"1969, who's President?"

"Richard Milhous Nixon," River replied, typing on the typewriter again. "Vietnam. Watergate. There's some good stuff too…"

"Not enough."

"Hippy!" River scolded cheekily.

"Archaeologist…"

"So?" Alex asked. "He had a meeting with Nixon. What about?"

"Off the record," River replied. "Apparently, it was to stay between Delaware and Nixon…"

"Well let's follow Canton and find out," the Doctor grinned. "Since I don't know what I'm getting into this time, for once I'm being discreet. Putting the engines on silent!" He pulled up a lever and spun away. A hideous, metallic grating noise filled the room. Wincing, River reached for another lever and pulled it. The noise ceased. "Did you do something?" the Doctor asked, poking his head around the console.

"No!" River assured him. "Just… watching."

The Doctor frowned but disregarded it. "Putting the outer shell on invisible. Haven't done this in a while, _big_ drain on the power!"

"You can turn the TARDIS invisible?" Rory asked incredulously.

The Doctor chuckled and pressed a button. Bright, searing lights shone at them from every direction. "Very nearly," River murmured. Squinting, she pressed a second button and the lights died away.

"Did you touch something?" the Doctor asked River directly.

"Just admiring your skills, sweetie," River nodded.

The Doctor frowned again. "Good… You might learn something. Okay," he reached up and turned on the scanner. Static. He bashed the side of it and groaned. "Can't check the scanner; doesn't work when we're cloaked… um… just give us a mo'." He turned and jogged towards the front doors. The rest of them began to follow him. "Whoa, whoa, you lot, wait a moment," he stopped when he realised, turning to face them. "We're in the middle of the most powerful city, in the most powerful country on Earth…" He backed up and reached the door again, which he opened. "Let's take it slow," he nodded, smiling. He then stepped outside.

There was silence in the room for a good minute. Eventually, Amy voiced something that had been worrying Alex for a while. "What if he lied about his age," she asked River. "He lies about a lot of stuff. Why would he wait 200 years to find us again? What if…" she tailed away, her bottom lip shaking.

"What if this is the day he dies?" Alex finished, standing by her side.

River shook her head. "The Doctor dies on the 22nd April 2011. 5:02pm. The Doctor doesn't need to ever return to that date again… except to die. It was time for him to stop running, he told us that, the future him."

"And what if he doesn't?" Alex shot back. "What if he never goes back to that date?"

"He will," River assured him mysteriously. Before Alex could fire another question at her, the TARDIS juddered, throwing them all off balance. River rolled her eyes when it had subsided. "Every time," she muttered. She opened a small draw under the main body of the console and withdrew a long wire, one end of which she plugged into the console. She then grabbed the side of the scanner and pulled it around to where Amy, Rory and Alex were standing.

"He said the scanner wouldn't work," Rory reminded her.

"I know," River smiled, plugging the other end of the wire into the scanner with a spark. "Bless!" She banged it a couple of times and waited for the static to fade. When it did, a comical sight met their eyes. The Doctor was being held on the floor of an impressive-looking room with at least eight men practically laid on top of him.

"Stop that, stop that!" he was crying. "OW! River, have you got my scanner working yet?"

"Oh… I hate him," River rolled her eyes again.

"No, you don't!" the Doctor called back. "River, make her blue again!"

River hurriedly pressed two buttons and pulled a final lever. The men piling themselves on top of the Doctor stopped what they were doing and stared into the monitor's camera in awe. As they did, the Doctor slipped out from underneath them.

"Mr President," the Doctor said in a cheesy American accent. He had somehow managed to get to the chair at the desk in what, Alex realised from the image on the screen, was the Oval Office. A number of handguns and pistols were drawn and aimed at him. "That child just told you everything you need to know, but you weren't listening. Never mind though, 'cos the answer's yes. I'll take the case. Fellas, the guns, really?"

River tapped Alex, Amy and Rory, indicating that they should follow her, as she sped towards the door. The four of them burst through and into the Office.

"They're Americans!" River reminded the Doctor as she emerged. Putting his hands up, Alex found himself staring down the barrels of at least five handguns.

"Don't shoot, definitely no shooting," the Doctor said in a hurry, jumping up from the chair and putting his hands up.

"No need to shoot us either," Rory pleaded, putting his hands on his head. "Very much _not_ in need of getting shot. Look, we've got our hands up."

"Who the hell are you?" a man asked the Doctor. Going by his face, Alex would have to say that this was President Nixon.

"Sir. You need to stay back," said a second man. Canton Everett Delaware III, perhaps?"

"But… who are they? And… w-what is that box?"

"It's a police box, can't you read?" the Doctor berated, slowly lowering his hands. "I'm your new undercover agent, on loan from Scotland Yard, codename: the Doctor. These are my top operatives," he gestured to Amy, Rory, Alex and River in turn, "the Legs, the Nose, the Beard, and Mrs Robinson."

"I hate you…" River said again.

"No you don't."

"The _Beard_?"

"Who _are_ you?" Nixon repeated.

"Nah, boring question, who's phoning you? _That's_ interesting. 'Cos Canton Three was right. That was definitely a girl's voice. Which means there's only one place in America she could be phoning from."

"Where?" Canton asked.

"Do not engage with the intruder, Mr Delaware," one of the security guards ordered.

"You heard everything I heard, it's simple enough," the Doctor explained. "Give me five minutes, I'll explain. On the other hand," he said, sitting down and putting his feet up on the desk, "lay a finger on me, or my friends, and you'll never, ever know."

"How'd you get that in here?" Canton asked, pointing to the TARDIS. "I mean, you didn't carry it in…"

"Clever, eh?" the Doctor smiled.

"Love it,"

"Do not compliment the intruder!" the guard ordered again.

"Five minutes?"

"Five,"

"Mr President, that man is a clear and present danger!" the guard went on.

"Mr President," Canton interrupted. "That man walked in here, with a big blue box and four of his friends. And that's the man he walked past." He pointed to the guard. "I think one of them's worth listening to. I say we give him five minutes. See if he delivers."

"Thanks, Canton," the Doctor smiled at him.

"If he doesn't, I'll shoot him myself."

"Not so thanks."

"Sir, I cannot recommend-"

"Shut up, Mr Peterson," Nixon interrupted, causing the guard to immediately stop talking. Nixon looked towards Canton and nodded. "All right."

"Five minutes," Canton told the Doctor, holding up five fingers. Slowly, the guns were lowered, and Alex, Amy, River and Rory's hands lowered with them.

The Doctor grinned and took his feet from the desk. He glanced at the various instruments on it. "I'm going to need a SWAT team, ready to mobilise, street-level maps covering all of Florida, a pot of coffee, twelve Jammy Dodgers and a fez!"

"Get him his maps," Canton ordered a few of the guards. The Doctor grumbled but didn't complain.

The men returned a few minutes later, laden down with large maps. The Doctor seized them at once and distributed them around the room. River kneeled down and began poring over one. The Doctor bent down next to her and whispered a few words to her, before standing up and handing a map to Alex. "Look for an intersection of three roads," he told him, doing away with the niceties. "Jefferson, Adams and Hamilton. Road, avenue, boulevard, street, anything." He moved on to Amy and Rory before Alex could respond. He sighed and took a seat on a nearby sofa, laying the map out on the seat next to him. He began searching.

"Why Florida?" Canton asked as the Doctor returned to the largest map, placed on the President's desk.

"That's where NASA is; she mentioned a spaceman. NASA's where the spacemen live! Also… there's another lead I'm following."

"I remember…" Alex heard Amy murmur from nearby. He glanced up to see Rory and her in quiet conversation. She was doubled over slightly, clutching her abdomen.

"Amy?" River asked from across the office.

"You alright?" the Doctor added, discarding one map and choosing another.

"I'm fine," she assured them uncertainly, "just feel a little sick… 'Scuse me, is there a toilet or something?" she asked Peterson.

"Sorry ma'am, while this procedure is on-going, you must remain within the Oval Office," he replied officially, his hands clasped together in front of him.

"Shut up and take her to the restroom," Canton ordered, rolling his eyes. A second guard led Amy out of the room.

It was hopeless, Alex thought. There were hundreds of roads. Washington, Monroe, even Astronaut Boulevard. His heart leapt once his eyes found Jefferson Avenue running alongside Adams Avenue, but no Hamilton was to be found, Avenue or otherwise. He sighed and looked up. The Doctor, Rory and River were all bent over a map. The President was laid back in his chair, looking at the ceiling. Canton was watching the Doctor's every move. The two guards by the door were deep in a muttered conversation.

"Venice," Alex muttered. His memory shot back to his time in Venice with the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Specifically as they were leaving. Strange.

"Sorry?" Rory asked from nearby. "Venice?"

Alex, still frowning, looked at him. "Yeah," he murmured, deep in thought. "I… I don't know, I just… I just remembered Venice. For some reason."

"Right…" Rory smirked. "You feeling okay?"

"Now you mention it…" Alex grimaced, putting a hand to his stomach. Maybe he and Amy had eaten something bad at the picnic. He shook his head and returned to his map for a couple more minutes.

"Your five minutes are up," Canton told the Doctor eventually, who was gazing at yet another map.

"Yeah, and where's my fez?"

Canton rolled his eyes again. As he did so, the phone on the President's desk began to ring. Everyone stopped what they were doing at looked at it apprehensively. Amy and the guard returned and also stared.

"The kid?" Canton wondered.

"Should I answer it?" asked Nixon.

"Here!" the Doctor cried, stabbing the map with his finger as the phone continued to ring. "The only place in the United States that call could be coming from. See? Obvious when you think about it."

Canton bent down and looked at where the Doctor was pointing. A grin crept onto his face. "You, sir, are a genius,"

"It's a hobby,"

"Mr President, answer the phone," Canton ordered Nixon.

Nixon slowly reached for the phone and picked it up, pressed a button on a nearby console as he did so. He brought it to his ear and spoke. "Hello?" he whispered. "This is President Nixon."

"It's here!" cried the voice of a small child. A girl. "The Spaceman's here! It's gonna get me! It's gonna eat me!"

The Doctor grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair and threw it on. "There's no time for a SWAT team, let's go." Alex, Amy, Rory and River dropped their maps and headed into the TARDIS. The Doctor began to follow. "Mr President, tell her help's on the way. Canton, on no account follow me into this box and close the door behind you." He dove inside the TARDIS. Canton rushed inside after him and closed the door. He turned and was met with a number of inquiring faces as he saw the impossible before him.


	56. The Impossible Astronaut: Three

_I'M BACK! It's been about 6 weeks or something ridiculous, but I'm back. Life's pretty hectic at the moment. And it's really annoying because I know where I want to go with this series! I have plot lines all laid out for Alex, both in individual episodes and a kind of mini-arc. It's just finding the time to do it. I'll try to be more proactive in finding time to write. Oh yeah! And I actually had to write this twice, because I got close to the end and the file deleted itself. YAY TECHNOLOGY. Sigh. The good news is, I've already started Day of the Moon! I wrote a few bits a while ago when I was suffering from Writer's Block! Anyway, enough chat, let's finish The Impossible Astronaut._

The Impossible Astronaut – Part Three

"Jefferson isn't a girl's name," the Doctor was saying as he frantically piloted the TARDIS, "and it's not her name either. Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton. River?"

"Surnames of three of America's Founding Fathers," she answered readily.

"Lovely fellas," the Doctor grinned. "Two of them fancied me."

Alex glanced at Amy, who rolled her eyes back at him. They smirked.

"Y'see, the President asked the child two questions," the Doctor continued. "_Where_ are you, and _who_ are you. She was answering where. Now, where would you find three big historical names, in a row, like that?"

"Where?"

"Here!" He pulled the landing lever triumphantly and seized Amy's hand. "Come on!" He led the way towards the door where Canton was still stood, Rory beside him.

"It's, uh…" Canton stammered.

"Are you taking care of this?" the Doctor asked Rory.

Not waiting for a reply, he pushed forward, opened the door and stepped outside. Alex followed and found himself in a dark, musty-smelling office. Light from the streetlights were streaming in through the half-open blinds. A moth-eaten chair sat at a dust-covered desk, with discarded, crumpled paper strewn across it.

"Well this is a dump," Alex concluded.

"It's probably supposed to be," the Doctor muttered wisely. "Keeps people away…"

"So where are we?" Amy inquired.

"About five miles from Cape Kennedy Space Centre." The Doctor had taken a seat at the desk and was waving a miniature flag around in the air. "It's 1969. The Year of the Moon! Interesting, don't you think?"

"But why would the little girl be here?"

"Kidnapped? Prisoner?" Alex wondered aloud.

"Lost? I dunno," the Doctor admitted. "The President asked the girl where she was and she did what any lost little girl would do." He got up from the chair and walked to the window, peering through the blinds. "She looked out of the window…"

Hamilton Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Adams Street.

"Streets!" Amy cried in realisation. "Of course. Street names."

"The only place in Florida, probably all of America, with those three street names on the same junction and Doctor Song," he said, turning to her, "you've got that face on again."

"What face?" she asked cheekily.

"The 'He's-Hot-When-He's-Clever' face."

"This is my normal face!"

"Yes it is," he smirked, evidently proud of himself.

"Oh, shut up!" River rolled her eyes and hit him on the arm.

"Not a chance."

River led the way out of the office. Alex and Amy followed her as the TARDIS doors opened and Rory and Canton emerged. The office door closed behind Alex.

"Brave heart, Canton!" the Doctor's voice floated out of the room as the door opened again. "Come on!"

River handed Alex and Amy a torch each. The Doctor produced a third from his jacket pocket as they made their way into the room. It was dark and musty. Abandoned, most likely. It had high ceilings, which was probably why it was so cold.

"It's a warehouse of some kind," River explained, glancing at her handheld. "Disused."

"You realise this is almost certainly a trap, of course," the Doctor said conversationally, swinging his torch around to gain a better perspective of his surroundings.

"I noticed the phone, yes," River responded, doing much the same thing.

"What about it?"

"It was cut-off," she explained. "So how did the child phone from here?"

"Okay… but why would anyone want to trap us?"

"Yeah. I mean, we've only been in '69 for, what, an hour? Tops?"

"Dunno. Let's see if anyone tries to kill us and work backwards."

Alex chuckled. They came to the end of the room and to a large wooden door. Alex reached forward and pushed it open.

"Ouch," he gasped, feeling a sharp stabbing pain in the palm of his hand.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked as River slid through the door into the next room.

"Yeah," Alex replied uncertainly, checking his hand. There was no sign of any wound. "Splinter, maybe,"

The Doctor smiled and patted him on the shoulder before leading him into the next room. There was much more to see here. What looked like an operating and/or torture table formed the centrepiece, with cables and wires hanging down around it, some covered in a horribly familiar material. A bright light shone onto it from above. Around the room were boxes and crates, full of miscellaneous rubbish. They spread out to look around.

"Now why would a little girl be here?" River murmured as she neared the centre of the room. She was making a beeline for the operating/torture table.

"Dunno. Let's find her and ask her."

"It's non-terrestrial," River concluded on closer inspection.

"What's it for?" Alex asked, rapping his knuckles on it in a 'This-won't-do-anything-but-it-makes-it-look-like-I-know-what-I'm-doing' manner.

"Some kind of biological processing," River mused. "This is artificial flesh. Way beyond 1960s human tech. Definitely alien. Probably not even from this time-zone…"

"Which is odd, because look at this!" the Doctor cried, rooting through one of the crates. He pulled out the helmet of an Apollo astronaut and held onto it, grinning.

"It's Earth tech. Contemporary."

"_Very_ contemporary! Cutting-edge. This is from the Space Programme!"

"Stolen?"

"What, by aliens?" Amy asked disbelievingly. "Why? If you can make it all the way to Earth, why steal technology that could barely make it to the moon?"

The Doctor had now stuffed the helmet onto his head. "Maybe because it's cooler," said his muffled voice happily. He pushed the visor up. "Look how cool this stuff is!"

"_Cool_ aliens?"

"Well what would you call me?"

"An alien."

"Oi!"

Rory and Canton emerged through the door and into the second room. Canton was looking at the processing table with interest.

"I, uh, think he's okay now," Rory announced.

"Ah, back with us Canton?" the Doctor asked cheerfully, dropping the helmet back into the crate.

"Like your wheels," he replied simply.

"That's my boy," he chuckled, slapping Canton on the shoulder. "Come on then. Little girl. Let's find her."

"We should spread out," Alex said, coming to a door leading to a darkened corridor that reminded him of the first time he'd met River. "This place is big, she could be anywhere."

"Best to stay together 'til we know what we're dealing with," the Doctor smiled.

"We have no idea how scared she is though," Alex reasoned. "A huge warehouse, full of weird and confusing technology, pitch black, being chased by a predatory space man? She's going to be hiding in the deepest, darkest corner she can find. Not in the central room with the big…" Alex paused, gesticulating with his hands, trying to find the words. "Torture… operating…. dissection… _probing_ table."

"Doctor," River called before he could reply. "Look at this,"

The Doctor shrugged at Alex and left to follow her voice. Alex sighed and brought up the rear. River was bent over an open grate in the floor with cables feeding into it. She pushed the grate out of the way and looked inside.

"So where does that go?" the Doctor asked with interest.

River held her scanner over the open hole as Rory shone his torch inside. "There's a network of tunnels running under here."

"Life signs?"

"No. Nothing that's showing up."

"Those are the worst kind…" the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Be careful!"

River was climbing inside the hole, finding a ladder with her feet. "Careful? Tried that once. _Ever_ so dull,"

"Shout if you get in trouble,"

"Don't worry. I'm _quite_ the screamer," River raised her eyebrows suggestively as she descended. "Now _there's_ a spoiler for you."

"So what's going on here?" Canton asked once she'd gone.

"Erm." The Doctor was squirming. Alex smirked. "Nothing. She's just a friend."

"I think he's talking about the possible alien incursion?" Rory told the Doctor, leaning in and muttering it to him.

T H E I M P O S S I B L E A S T R O N A U T

Alex, Amy and Canton were inspecting the complicated equipment. Alex was sulking, having been told off by the Doctor. Why _shouldn't_ he be allowed to go off and explore, if River was allowed to venture into some pitch-black underground caverns?

"Oh grow up," Amy chuckled when Alex muttered a complaint about it once again. "We'll find her,"

"He doesn't know how to find her," Alex pointed out. "He doesn't know children,"

"Do you?" Canton asked.

"Better than him,"

"I've never seen you like this," Amy realised, smiling slightly. "Outwardly disputing his word. Calling him up on it. What's got into you?"

Alex shrugged. "It shouldn't be all fun and laughs this time. We need to find this girl and get her out. Maybe, just this once, his way of doing it _isn't_ the best way."

"But he is in charge right?" Canton asked. Amy nodded. "Then shouldn't you be doing what your commanding officer tells you?" he asked Alex.

"Didn't you get fired for not doing exactly that?" Alex smirked.

"Maybe," Canton replied, smiling in a similar fashion. He picked up a small object from the desk, grimaced and put it down again. "So. I was in a bar, having a drink. Tell me honestly. Am I still there?"

"'Fraid not," Amy grinned.

At that moment, River reappeared at the hole in the ground, breathing heavily. "All clear! Just tunnels," she announced. "Nothing down there I can see. But give me five minutes. I want to take another look around…"

"_Stu_pidly dangerous!" the Doctor cried.

"Yep! I like it too," River called back as she re-descended. Alex and Canton returned to the mix of unusual alien devices on the desk.

"Hang on River… I'm coming too…" Rory called dejectedly, lowering himself into the hole.

"Be careful, Ror'" Alex called, chuckling to himself. Knowing Rory, climbing into a mysterious, pitch-black hole in a creepy warehouse would be the last thing he'd want to be doing.

"Why d'you call him Ror'?" Amy asked when he'd disappeared.

"No idea," Alex admitted, now rooting through one of the crates of stolen Earth tech. "It's not even a word, is it?"

"Nope!"

"Well he doesn't mind it. Or if he does, he doesn't complain… then again, it is Rory… Oh! I remember. It's what I called him when we first met."

"And when was that?" Canton asked, having been eavesdropping on their conversation.

"In about forty years," Alex said absent-mindedly, looking at an unusual gas canister as if he knew what he were doing.

"Pardon me?"

"A year or two ago," Amy chuckled, kicking Alex surreptitiously.

"Ow! Amy! He's helping us look for a big, scary astronaut in a pretty much haunted warehouse, having travelled hundreds of miles in a matter of seconds, to be here. I think he's entitled to know that we're from the future."

"Alex!" Amy hissed.

"Actually, Rory already kinda implied it," Canton mentioned.

"Rory!" Amy hissed again, forgetting that he wasn't around.

Alex chuckled and picked up the gas canister. On closer inspection, he'd noticed that it seemed to be holding nothing more than oxygen. "Doctor," he called, lugging it over to him. The Doctor pulled his head out of a crate, from inside which it had been buried. "Why would they need to stockpile oxygen? Of all things?" He gestured to the other similar canisters, all piled up in a corner of the room.

"How d'you know it's oxygen?" the Doctor asked, bending down beside the canister and putting an ear to it.

"It says it's oxygen," Alex noted, pointing to the label on the side.

"Yeah, it's oxygen," the Doctor agreed. He took out the Sonic and scanned the gas. "Oh! Oxygen, plus…"

"Plus what?" Alex frowned.

"Unknown element," the Doctor muttered, looking at his readings. He grinned and turned to Alex. "I don't know!"

"Help me!" called a girl's voice. A child's voice. "Help! Help me!"

"You're not stopping me now," Alex told the Doctor, as Canton ran from the room, his gun drawn. Alex rushed after him, leaving the Doctor and Amy behind.

"Help!" called the voice again. Alex and Canton came to a split in the corridor.

"Doctor!" Canton called. "Doctor, quickly!"

"Stop, stop! Quiet," Alex ordered Canton. He listened…

"_Please_!"

"This way," Alex announced, turning to the right and following the sound of the girl's pleas.

"Why're you so desperate to find the girl?" Canton asked Alex when they slowed down. They'd come to another fork. "Why's she important to you?"

"She's a scared little girl," Alex reminded him. "How would you like to be trapped, alone and scared, being hunted down by a monster?"

Canton shrugged. "Split up?"

"Guess we'll have to," Alex agreed, taking the left path.

"Be careful!" Canton called after him, gun in hand.

"Okay girl, where are you? Or Spaceman, where're you? It'd be nice if you weren't nearby. Unlikely, but nice. I'm rambling. To myself. I'm talking to myself, and I'm rambling. I still am. I really need to stop talking to myself. But I'm only doing it because I'm just a little bit scared. The girl's probably scared, so why isn't _she_ talking? It would _really_ help us out here…"

As if on cue, the girl called out again: "Please help me!"

She was close. But she was the wrong way. Alex turned around and sprinted back the way he'd come, running towards the path Canton had taken. He ran into Amy and the Doctor on the way. The three of them turned a final corner and saw, at the far end of the corridor, the limp figure of Canton lying on the floor.

"Canton! Canton, are you alright?" the Doctor asked, dropping to his knees at Canton's side and checking for vitals.

"Is he alright?" Amy asked. She was clutching her stomach.

"Are you alright?" Alex muttered to Amy, nodding towards the unborn baby. Amy hesitated but nodded, smiling.

"Just unconscious," the Doctor concluded. "Got a _proper_ whack though,"

"What from?"

"Doesn't matter," Amy told them both, wincing. "Doctor, I need to tell you something. I have to tell you, now,"

"Not a great moment, Amy!" the Doctor said condescendingly. "Probably the Spaceman," he mentioned to Alex.

"No! It's important! Alex already knows, but it has to be now!"

"Help! Help me!" the girl cried out again. She was incredibly close by the sounds of it. Alex was torn.

"Doctor…" Amy said, kneeling down with a hand still on her stomach. "I'm pregnant."

The Doctor's eyes widened in shock. Before he had time to form a coherent response however, ominous, _boom_ing footsteps filled their ears, coupled with a Darth Maul-esque breathing pattern. The three of them turned to look at an open doorway nearby. It was the Astronaut. Exactly the same as in forty-two years when it was due to kill the best man in the universe. The three of them stared at it in shock as it came to a stop and returned their gaze.

"That's it…" Amy murmured in horror. "The Astronaut…"

It extended an arm, though not aggressively. Amy turned and fiddled with something on the floor. The Astronaut lifted its arm and slowly raised its visor, revealing the face of the suit's occupant. Alex and the Doctor's eyes widened as one. It was a little girl. The little girl.

"Help me!" she cried pleadingly, heartbreakingly.

"Get down!" Amy cried, picking up Canton's loaded gun from the floor.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor cried.

"Saving your life!" She turned and fired blindly.

"NO!"

"AMY!"

Amy and the girl screamed as one.


	57. Day of the Moon: One

If DayDreamer2010 reads this, I have left a reply to your review _IN_ the reviews. Unfortunately, you've disabled the private messaging feature, so this was the only way I could think of replying -

"…_ominous, booming footsteps filled their ears, coupled with a Darth Maul-esque breathing pattern…" - Definitely meant to say Darth Vader there! Stupid characters, having practically the same name :P Wrote this part a lot quicker than the past few! Hopefully it's a sign of things to come._

Day of the Moon – Part One

_3 months later – Las Vegas, Nevada_

"Target headed into Caesar's Palace, west side of the Strip. Backup available if necessary!"

The voices spurred Alex to run faster. He couldn't change direction now. He was already inside. And he wasn't exactly inconspicuous; he had tally marks scrawled all over his face and arms. He glanced down at his arm and noticed a new one. Not taking the time to look around, he sprinted through the crowds of people milling about, rudely pushing them out of his way in an attempt to escape. His shoes loudly clumped down on the ornate floor, easily giving away his location.

"Target headed towards the elevators!" called Canton's voice. "You, lockdown the building," he called to the man on the desk as he led the group towards the lifts, a path having opened up through the crowd.

Alex reached the lifts and dived inside one. He punched the button for the top floor and waited impatiently for the doors to close. An FBI agent appeared in front of him at the end of the corridor and raised his gun. Alex's eyes widened as he stared down the barrel. How good was his shot?

"I said _don't_ shoot until I give the word!" Canton shouted at the agent. He reluctantly lowered his gun and Alex smiled as the doors closed and the lift began to ascend.

The lift neared the top. It came to a halt and the doors opened. Alex stuck his head out of the door and looked both ways along the corridor. Nothing. He glanced around and saw a sign labelled "Emergency exit" with a flight of stairs visible through the small glass window. He threw the door open and sprinted up the stairs. A dull pinging noise alerted him to the fact that a second lift had arrived at the floor. Alex quickened his pace and quickly reached the door at the top. He stretched his hand out to open the door. There were three new groups of five tally marks on his arm. Alex stared at them in horror. How long since he'd last looked at his arm? Two minutes? Three? Alex pushed the thought to the back of his mind and pushed the door open.

"Wow..." Alex breathed. He was on the roof of the Caesar's Palace hotel. It was approaching sunset, and the effect it was taking on the skyline was phenomenal. Alex had always wanted to go to Vegas. Just not particularly under these circumstances.

"Y'know, the emperors of Ancient Rome used to kill people for fun," Canton's voice said. "Entertainment." Alex turned on the spot to find a group of FBI agents standing in front of him with Canton at the forefront. Other than Canton, all of them had guns drawn, pointed directly at Alex's chest. "Kinda fits that we'd kill you here. Caesar's Palace. Don'tcha think?"

"This is _them_, Canton. Those creatures, this is what they want!" Alex pleaded. "Who told you to kill me? Do you even know? They've made you do this!"

Canton smirked. He too raised his gun and aimed it. "Nowhere left to run, Mr Morgan. End of the line."

Alex sighed. He was hundreds of feet up; no chance of jumping over the edge. He'd be shot before he could get anywhere near the emergency ladder lining the back of the building. Canton was right. He was cornered. He looked up at Canton and smiled briefly. Canton returned the gesture, and winked. Alex closed his eyes and spread his arms out, accepting his fate. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and fell backwards into the darkness.

D A Y O F T H E M O O N

"Just get in the bag," Canton told Alex, Amy and Rory. "My men'll carry you to the prison. But as far as they're concerned, you're dead. So stay still, and don't move."

After being "killed", Canton had separately escorted the three of them to Area 51, deep in the Nevada desert. Amy had arrived first, then Alex, then Rory. They'd had to be locked in the mortuary for days, waiting for the prison to be completed.

"Carry?" Rory asked, doubt in his voice.

"Well, you guys are enemies of the state…" Canton smiled. "So don't be surprised if they don't treat you with too much respect."

There was a knock at the door. "Mr Delaware, sir," a voice said. "Are the bodies ready?"

"Lie down and zip-up," Canton whispered harshly before calling to the man, "Yeah, just about." He made one last check over the three bags. "Bring 'em in."

The bag was extremely hot, Alex realised as he lay inside, motionless and trying to breathe as quietly as possible. He felt a man grab the top of his bag and pull. Alex braced himself. He and the bag fell and crashed to the floor and were dragged across the rough concrete surface. Alex bit down on his lip to stop himself grunting in pain. They were dragged for a good five minutes, all the while being subjected to the guards' inane excuse for a conversation.

"Watch the-" Canton began. Too late. Alex felt himself tumble down a small set of stairs. He winced but managed to keep himself composed. "Stairs."

Alex now felt a rush of cool air as he heard another door open. This must be the hangar. The journey was nearly over. Alex and his bag came to a stop as he heard one of the other bags get dragged inside the prison.

"Is there a reason you're doing this?" asked the Doctor's voice.

"I want you to know where you stand," Canton replied. The second bag was dragged inside the prison. Alex's turn was next.

"In a cell," the Doctor said. Alex was now dragged inside and dumped, his head very nearly smacking into the hard stone floor. He heard footsteps as the guard walked away and out of the cell.

"In the perfect cell," Canton corrected. His voice was strangely echoed. "Nothing can penetrate these walls. Not a sound. Not a radio-wave." There was a series of beeping noises, followed by a metallic grinding. "Not the tiniest particle of anything. In here, you are literally cut off from the rest of the universe." He took a deep breath. "So I guess they can't hear us, right?"

"Good work Canton. Door sealed?"

"You bet."

"Thank god," Alex pronounced as he sat up, wriggling into the right position to reach the top of the bag and unzip himself. He made a small hole and pushed his hands through, ripping the bag open and breathing in a lungful of fresh air.

"Finally," Amy muttered as she escaped, evidently feeling the same way.

"These things could really do with air-holes!" Rory whined, also taking a deep breath.

"Never had a complaint before," Canton smirked.

The Doctor stretched out his arms and legs, having been tied up in a straight-jacket for god knows how long. Alex glanced up at the Doctor. In particular, the long, matted beard growing on his chin and under his nose.

"And _I'm_ the Beard?" Alex asked, highly amused at the Doctor's appearance.

"Isn't it gonna look odd that you're staying in here with us?" Amy asked as she replaced her shoes back on her feet.

"Odd, but not alarming. They know there's no way out of this place."

"Exactly. Whatever they might think we're doing in here," the Doctor agreed, repositioning his braces, "they know we're not going anywhere." Smiling, he fell to one side and hit something solid, yet invisible. The image of the TARDIS rippled into being beside him before disappearing again. He raised an arm and clicked his fingers, causing the doors to open. "Shall we?" he grinned.

"But what about Doctor Song?" Canton asked as they all rushed inside. "She _dove_ off a _rooftop_!"

"Don't worry," the Doctor replied, rushing towards the console, "she does that. Amy, Rory, open all the doors to the swimming pool! Alex, when I tell you, open the front door!" As Rory and Amy rushed from the room in different directions, the Doctor pressed various buttons, pulled the landing lever and clicked his fingers to Alex. "Now!"

Alex seized the front doors and pulled they both open, diving out of the way as soon as he did. The figure of River shot past him and, quite literally, disappeared. Looking out of the door, Alex saw the side of a building and the night sky. Peering out of the side, he realised that the TARDIS was parked on the side of a tall New York skyscraper. Alex looked questioningly at the Doctor.

"Emergency protocols 475 and 692," he explained happily. "'Gravity remains constant to the floor, regardless of the outside conditions'. And 'any-one entering the TARDIS at great speed will be automatically transported to the safest place aboard, as designated by the pilot.' Me," he grinned, tapping the TARDIS' scanner happily.

Canton glanced at Alex. "Did you get any of that?" he asked in confusion.

"Bits," Alex shrugged. "You get used to it."

"Now then, Alex, find Amy and Rory. Probably try the swimming pool. You've got five minutes. Get dressed, make a note of those marks and rub them off,"

"Have a shower?" he asked, knowing the answer.

"No time. Go."

D A Y O F T H E M O O N

Re-dressed and clean-skinned, Amy, Rory and Alex returned to the console room. River arrived seconds later, drying her hair with a towel. As soon as they were all present, the Doctor began to speak, now reunited with his tweed jacket. He had, Alex noted, forgotten to shave off his beard.

"So, we know they're everywhere. Not just a landing party, an occupying force. And they have been here a very, very long time. But nobody knows that, because no-one can remember them!"

"So what're they up to?" asked Canton.

"No idea, but the good news is," the Doctor announced, pulling the landing lever and heading for the door, "we've got a secret weapon."

He led the five of them outside. The TARDIS had landed on a wide, open field, tall green grass growing in plentiful quantities. It would have been a nice place for a picnic. Clearly, however, that wasn't why the TARDIS had landed there. Alex looked up at the enormous rocket before him, dwarfing everything in sight. Apollo 11.

"Apollo 11's your secret weapon?" River asked doubtingly.

"No! No of course it's not Apollo 11, that would be silly," the Doctor berated her. "It's Neil Armstrong's foot…"

"Which, of course, isn't silly at all," Alex pointed out.

"So what's the plan?" Rory asked.

"Not sure yet. Still working on it. Now, inside, all of you."

D A Y O F T H E M O O N

The Doctor reappeared in the console room. He was now clean-shaven and had a gun-like object in his hand. He made a beeline for Canton and aimed the object into Canton's hand, who grimaced in pain.

"So, three months, what've we found out?" the Doctor asked, making his way towards Rory.

"Well, they are everywhere. Every state in Americ- _Ahh_!" he cried as the Doctor fired the gun into Rory's hand.

"Not just America, the whole world."

"There's a greater concentration here though," River stated, reading from the scanner.

"They seem to be docile, unless under direct attack," Alex added. "We must've seen hundreds of those things, but we survived every encounter without a scratch. Ow!" The Doctor had fired the gun into his hand now. It felt like a particularly violent injection of some description.

The Doctor moved on to Amy and had a whispered conversation with her. "Ow!" she cried, when they'd finished.

"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them?" Canton summarised.

"You've seen them too," River reminded him. "That night at the warehouse. Remember? Like Alex said, we've seen hundreds of those things. Everyone has. We still don't know what they look like!"

"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away," Rory explained. "The exact second you're not looking, you can't remember anything."

"Sometimes you feel a bit sick though, but not always,"

"Generally, you remember all previous encounters once you look back at one though," Alex added.

"So that's why you marked your skin?"

"Only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter without having to have another one."

"How long have they been here?"

"That's what we've spent the last three months trying to find out."

"Not easy when you can't remember anything you discover," Rory moaned, crossing his arms.

"But how long d'you think?"

The Doctor stepped forward. "As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye, or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall. They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your heads: we are not fighting an alien invasion… we're leading a revolution. And today the battle begins."

"How?"

"Like this," the Doctor grinned. He reached back and injected River's hand with his pistol. She jumped in pain and surprise. The Doctor laughed triumphantly. "Nano recorder!" he said happily, holding up a miniscule pod and feeding it into the gun. "Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He injected himself in the hand. "Ow! And then it tunes itself directly to the speech centres of your brain. It'll pick up your voice no matter what, telepathic connection. So! The moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it," he pressed a finger to his palm, causing a bright red light to glow in his hand, "and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing…"

He released his finger. The red light on his palm began to flash. He pressed it again. "And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing," said a perfect recording of the Doctor's voice.

"… Because the moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message; you _keep_ checking your hand. If you've had an encounter, that's the first you'll know about it."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before we started?" asked Canton indignantly.

"Well, I did, but even information about these creatures erases itself over time. I couldn't refresh it because I couldn't talk to you." The Doctor stepped forward and pressed a number of buttons on the TARDIS' typewriter. He glanced towards the door. Five sets of eyes followed his glance and were met with shock. One of the creatures was standing just inside the TARDIS doors. "It's okay," the Doctor assured them.

"My god! How did it get in here?" Canton cried. He had his finger firmly placed on his palm. The light was ablaze.

"Keep eye contact with the creature," the Doctor commanded. "And when I say, turn back, and when you do, straighten my bow tie." He finished by tapping Canton on the shoulder. Canton turned back to the Doctor quite calmly, reached out and straightened the Doctor's bow tie.

"What?" Canton asked when he realised everyone was looking at him. "What're you staring at?"

"Look at your hand," River told him.

Very obviously confused, Canton glanced at his hand. His eyes widened in shock as he noticed a red, flashing light. "Why's it doing that?" he asked in a panic.

"What does it mean if the light's flashing? What did I just tell you?" the Doctor murmured.

"I haven't-"

"Play it," he ordered. Canton slowly reached out and pressed a finger to his palm.

"My god! How did it get in here?" asked the recording of Canton.

"Keep eye contact with the creature," the Doctor's voice commanded again. "And when I say, turn back, and when you do, straighten my bow tie."

"What? What're you staring at?" asked the recording. The real Canton slowly turned around and once more saw the creature standing, motionless, near the door of the TARDIS.

"Look at your hand," said a recording of River's voice. The recording ended.

"It's a hologram extrapolated from a picture on Amy's phone," the Doctor explained. Alex guessed that Canton might understand 60% of the words in that sentence. The Doctor continued regardless. "Take a good, long, look." The hologram slowly faded and disappeared. "You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting."

"Did we?" Alex asked, his last memory being that of the Doctor explaining how to use the nano recorder.

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "Canton. Describe it to me."

"I can't," he muttered after a second or two.

"No. Neither can I," the Doctor admitted. He headed back to the console. "You straightened my bow tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature."

"You mean, they could do that to people? You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it?"

"Assuming they _can_ talk like us?" Alex pointed out. "Do we know if they can?"

"What did you write on your arm?" the Doctor asked Alex. "When we infiltrated Disneyland, what did you find on your arm?"

"'They can speak. They know us by name'," Alex recited off by heart. He'd forgotten he even knew that.

"There you go," the Doctor nodded. "Now, a little girl in a spacesuit. They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?"

"Could be anywhere."

"Except they'd probably stay close to the warehouse, because… why bother doing anything else? And they'd take her from somewhere that'd cause the least amount of attention," he said, typing on the typewriter and scanning a map of Florida on the screen. "But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA."

"Find her?" Canton asked in disbelief. "Where do we look?"

"Children's homes…"


	58. Day of the Moon: Two

_Long time, no see! About three, or something ridiculous. I've had my A-Level exams here in England, but I'm all finished now. I'm now on my summer holidays, giving me over two months of NO WORK! Apart from my summer job. But that's beside the point. What's important is that I'm back, and ready to write! :)_

_Before we start though, on a more serious note, it is with great sadness that I dedicate this story now, not only to Nick Courtney and Lis Sladen, but to the fabulous Caroline John, who passed away recently. Caroline played Liz Shaw, companion to Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor for four adventures in 1970 and again in 1983 in _The Five Doctors_, not to mention a number of Big Finish productions. As '_The Seventh Obelisk'_ shows, Pertwee is my favourite Classic Doctor, and at no time more than during his time with Caroline, who played one of my all-time favourite companions, including those from the new series. Rest in Peace Caroline, and Rest in Peace Liz._

Day of the Moon – Part Two

Alex and Amy had both delved deep into the TARDIS wardrobe and eventually discovered official-looking suits that had fitted them both. Once they were dressed, the Doctor had dropped them off back at the warehouse, with a list of old children's homes.

"Here's number three," Canton muttered as he pulled up outside their third home, Greystark Hall. The sign above the archway was old and dilapidated, nearly illegible. The horrendous weather didn't make it any easier to read.

"_In just a few days, mankind will set foot on the moon for the first time_," said the news broadcaster on the radio. "_Today, the President reaffirmed America's commitment to_-" The man was cut off as Canton switched off the radio.

"Ready. Check?" he asked Amy beside him and Alex in the back seat.

"Clear,"

Alex checked his hand. No red light. "Clear," he seconded.

"Clear," Canton agreed. On this, the three of them braved the pouring rain and got out of the car, heading quickly to the shelter of the awning above the front door of Graystark Hall. Canton reached out and rapped his knuckles on the door swiftly. After a moment or two, the door creaked open slowly, revealing a timid-looking old man. He was balding, with wrinkle lines covering his face. Stress? He was dressed in a white coat, suit and a bowtie.

"Hello?" he asked nervously.

Canton held out his card and badge. "FBI. You must be Doctor Renfrew. Can we come in?"

"Um. The children are asleep."

"We'll be very quiet," Amy assured him.

"Is there a problem?"

"It concerns a missing child. We have reason to believe she may be located within your premises?" Alex spoke out with feigned authority, shivering and desperate to get inside.

Dr Renfrew looked at the three of them for a moment or two, very clearly confused. "Yes… yes. Come in, please…" The man left the door open and turned around, presumably a signal for them to enter.

"This guy's in charge of kids?" Alex muttered to Canton as they stepped inside. Canton shrugged.

"Guess so,"

"This way, please," Renfrew said, leading the way to an old, creaking staircase. "Please excuse the writing," he chuckled nervously. "It keeps happening. I try to… clean it up."

Alex looked at the walls. Renfrew clearly wasn't doing a good job of cleaning it up. Daubed, in metre-high letters in some places, were phrases – _GET OUT_, _LEAVE NOW._

"It's the kids, yeah?" Amy asked, clearly suspecting otherwise. "They do that?"

"Yes, the children," Renfrew agreed. "It must be. Yes…" He reached up with a cloth to clean the message off the wall. As he did, his sleeve jacket slid down his arm to reveal a similar message – _GET OUT_ – in the same handwriting. "Anyway…" Renfrew continued, dropping the cloth and turning around. "My office is this way…"

"This has to be the place," Alex muttered to Amy, both of them looking at the warning messages, grimacing. Alex reached out and touched one of the letters. "It's still wet," he realised, pulling a hand back.

"Done recently then… and he's forgotten doing it. This has gotta be it," Amy agreed.

"We nearly didn't come to this place," Canton informed Renfrew from the next landing. Alex and Amy hurried after him. "I understood Graystark Hall was closed in '67."

"That's the plan, yes…"

"The plan?" Amy asked.

"Not long now."

"It's 1969," Canton told Renfrew.

"No, no! We close in '67. That's the plan, yes."

"You misunderstood me sir. It's 1969 _now_."

"Why are you saying that? Of course it isn't…"

"July…"

Renfrew frowned and glanced towards Alex and Amy, expecting them to dispute Canton's words. When they didn't, he turned on the spot again. "My office is this way," he repeated, shaking. "This way…" He reached the top of the staircase and turned to the right, ascending a far smaller staircase in the wall.

"I'll check upstairs," Amy told Canton and Alex, moving away to the next staircase.

"You need me in there?" Alex asked, also edging towards the next staircase. Canton smirked.

"I think I can take him," he chuckled.

Alex smiled and hurried after Amy. They came to the top of the next staircase. Amy reached for a light switch and tested it. The bulb flickered and died again. Alex chuckled. "Classic haunted house," he murmured.

"Oh shut up," Amy replied, taking a torch from her pocket and switching it on. She glanced up the next staircase. "Right. Split up or stick together?"

"We'll cover more ground if we split-up. And quicker."

Amy nodded and began to climb the next staircase. "Good luck," she called back as she disappeared into the darkness. Alex turned and headed down the corridor in front of him, sweeping his torch from left to right and back again. He suddenly noticed another light. A new one. A flashing red one. His eyes were drawn to his palm. How long had it been going? Shaking slightly, he pressed a finger to the light.

"_They're here. I'm not going to say where." _The recording of Alex seemed to be whispering. _"I don't know if they've noticed me. If they have, they're ignoring me. Just be careful. They're here,"_ he said again as the recording went dead.

The hairs on Alex's neck were standing on end. Forcing himself not to look over his shoulder, he pressed on. He pushed open the door to a nearby bedroom, ensuring he closed the door behind him. He made a sweep of the room with his torch. Bed frames with mouldy mattresses lined the walls, which also had threats and warnings daubed over them in foot-high letters. He walked further into the room and glanced around. Other than the beds and a few bedtime tables, it was empty. He heard a floorboard creak somewhere above him. Dearly hoping that it was Amy, he turned and opened the door back into the corridor. He then slammed it shut again.

"_There's at least ten of them out there," _the recording told him. _"Maybe more. I think they're waiting for something… _Crap_, it looked at me." _There followed the creaking sound of the door shutting rapidly, and the recording stopped.

"Calm down," Alex muttered to himself. He was shaking slightly. He turned and leant his back on the door. He swung his torch around the room again and glanced back at his hand to make sure he was alone. Lightning flashed outside the window, lighting up the walls for a split second. Alex frowned. He dragged one of the beds up against the door to barricade it, before crossing to the opposite side of the room to investigate. Drawn on the wall were two large, black arrows, either side of the main window. Alex touched one of them. The ink was wet; it was recently drawn. Almost unable to bring himself to, Alex looked out of the window.

Beyond the cracked glass was a very tall, very dead oak tree. There wasn't a single leaf on any of the branches… meaning that Alex could see every detail of the tree. Including what was stood on it. He made a quick calculation. Thirteen. There were thirteen spindly figures, all dressed in black suits in the tree. Some were hanging upside down, like bats. Others were more active. Those that were awake looked directly at Alex, their gazes almost penetrating him. Almost paralysed, Alex pressed a finger to his palm

"They're in the trees. Some are asleep. But they know I'm here. Find Amy. Find Canton. Get out. This has to be the place she was taken. We've found it, now get out."

Alex turned away from the window and continued his half-hearted search of the room. He bent down and looked under a few of the bed frames, only to be greeted by centimetre-thick layers of dust and spider-webs containing long-dead spiders. Alex exhaled in annoyance, accidently blowing dust everywhere, and got to his feet. Clearly, there was nothing of interest in this room. He left and headed to the next flight of stairs. Perhaps Amy had had more luck.

He reached the top of the next staircase and turned to the right, to be met with a view of a dark black suit. Momentarily stunned in shock, Alex slowly raised his eyes upwards to meet the creature's gaze.

"H-hi," Alex stuttered, holding its look. It didn't say a word. It looked at him in silence for a few seconds more, and then slowly turned and walked away towards the next staircase. Alex watched it go, reaching for his palm, to leave himself a message. The problem was the fact that he already had a message…

"_They're in the trees. Some are asleep. But they know I'm here. Find Amy. Find Canton. Get out. This has to be the place she was taken. We've found it, now get out."_

"Great," Alex muttered. A shrill scream sounded from the upper floor. The creature reacted to the screen and quickened its pace, soon disappearing up the next staircase and out of sight.

_BANG. Bang. Bang._

The three gunshots were followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. Seconds later, Canton appeared by Alex's side.

"Did you hear that?" Canton asked, gun drawn.

"Hear what?" Alex asked, in a slightly dazed state.

"Amy screaming?"

Alex frowned and concentrated. "No." He remembered the recordings he'd left himself. "But those creatures are all over this place Canton." They began to make their way hurriedly towards the next staircase. "If she'd screamed while I was with one of them, would I remember the scream?"

"No idea," he replied. "I guess not. We don't remember leaving ourselves the messages. AMY?" he called out. They arrived at what seemed to be the top floor. Sloping ceilings obscured the two men's view of the corridor, but it was clear that there were many more bedrooms here. They seemed to be smaller, one- or two-bed rooms, more personal than the dormitories downstairs.

"Help me!" called out Amy's unmistakeable voice. She was quite clearly distressed.

"AMY!" Alex and Canton called out together.

Alex took out one of River's communicators from his jacket pocket and pressed a button on it.

_Connecting_

_Connecting_

_Connecting_

_Connected_

"River!" Alex cried after what seemed a lifetime. He followed Canton from door to door, room to room, following Amy's calls for help.

"What's up? Have you found the place?"

"Probably yeah, but they've got Amy. We need you,"

"On our way. Doctor!" she called, as she hung up.

Alex followed suit and rushed after Canton who had turned a corner up ahead. He was attempting to shoulder-barge a door down.

"Please, somebody help me! I can't see!" Amy was crying. Her voice was definitely coming from inside this room.

"Amy!" Canton called through the locked door, banging on it. "Amy, can you hear me? Amy, I'm gonna try to blow the lock, I need you to stand back, okay?" He took a pace back and aimed his gun at the door handle, eyes locked onto it.

"Okay, stand back, gun down, I've got it!" the Doctor cried, rushing through and ducking under Canton's arm, Sonic in hand. "Amy, are you okay?" He succeeded in unlocking the door and the five of them piled into the room.

This bedroom seemed even more homely than the others on the floor. There was a bed that appeared well-slept in, with bed-clothing suitable for a young girl… a girl of around seven or eight years… There were photo-frames on top of a wooden dresser, and a homemade mobile hanging from the ceiling. Sprawled out on the carpet was the Astronaut suit. Noticeably absent however, was Amy.

"Where is she Doctor?" Rory asked, visibly scared for his wife's wellbeing. There were no obvious ways out of the room, other than the door they themselves had come through, and the five-floors-up window.

"It's empty," River stated, referring to the Astronaut, whose visor she had forcibly raised.

"It's dark," Amy's voice whimpered tearfully. "So dark… I don't know where I am…"

They all followed the sound of her voice. Five pairs of eyes rested on a flashing red light on the floor in the centre of the room.

"Please, can anyone hear me?" asked Amy through her detached nano-recorder.

Rory bent down and deftly picked the recorder up, holding it as carefully as a new-born baby. "They took this out of her?" he asked in horror. "How did they do that, Doctor? Why can I still hear her?" he asked through her pained whimpering.

"Is it a recording?"

The Doctor scanned the device and checked the readings. He exhaled. "It defaults to live; this is current. Wherever she is right now, this is what she's saying."

Rory put the recorder near to his mouth and whispered into it. "Amy, can you hear me? We're coming for you. Wherever you are… We're coming. I swear."

"She can't hear you," the Doctor told Rory, sounding truly apologetic. "I'm so sorry… it's one-way."

Rory slowly turned around. "She can always hear me, Doctor… Always. Wherever she is, and she always knows that I am coming for her. Do you understand me? Always."

"Doctor? Are you out there?" Amy asked, oblivious. Alex and River exchanged glances, their hearts near-breaking for Rory as they saw his face fall. "Can you hear me? Oh god! Ple-ease! Oh Doctor, please get me out of this!"

"He's coming," Rory said, unfaltering. "I'll bring him. I swear."

"Hello?" asked an almost comical voice, breaking the rather serious moment. "Is someone there?" Canton spun on the spot, gun aimed at the doorway. The tottering figure of Dr Renfrew came into view. "I… I think someone has been shot… I think we should help. We c-… I can't… I can't remember…"

The group of them hurriedly followed Dr Renfrew back through the floors to his office. Crouched over in pain on the floor of the office, its long, spindly fingers applying pressure to a gunshot wound on its stomach, was one of the creatures. In its weakened state, it looked almost pitiful. It tried to back away from the Doctor as he got close, kneeling down next to it.

"Okay…" the Doctor murmured, steadying himself. "Who and what are you?"

"Sssssilence, Doctorrr…" the creature echoed, each syllable stretched out and accompanied by a rattling breathing sound. "We are… the Silence… and Silence will fall…"

N

After dropping Canton off back in Nevada, the Doctor, River, Alex and Rory had returned to the warehouse, using it as a base of operations. Rory had found an old television set in a cupboard and, after some tinkering from the Doctor, it was displaying a fuzzy black-and-white image of Apollo 11. It was launch day. A dull-sounding man was commentating over the various images and stills flashing up on the screen, giving viewers basic information about the mission. If nothing else, the television served the fill the empty silences.

"It's an exo-skeleton," River reported. She and the Doctor had placed the Astronaut suit on the central 'operating' table, as Alex had dubbed it. "Basically life-support. There's about twenty different kinds of alien tech in here…"

"Who was she?" the Doctor wondered aloud. "Why put her in here?"

"If it's life support, they could've been trying to save her," Alex pointed out.

"Yeah, but why? And from what? This is high-tech equipment. Not the kind of thing you'd throw together in an afternoon. Thought went into this suit. A lot of thought. And a lot of planning."

"Exactly. Put this on, you don't even need to eat. It processes sunlight directly…. Built-in weaponry, and a communication system that can hack into anything."

"Including the telephone network?"

"Easily."

"But why phone the President?"

"It defaults to the highest authority it can find. The little girl gets frightened; the most powerful man on Earth gets a phone call. The night terrors… with a hotline to the White House. You won't learn anything from that envelope you know."

Alex glanced over at the Doctor, who had licked the envelope and now appeared evaluating its taste. "Purchased on Earth. Perfectly ordinary stationary. TARDIS blue! Summoned by a stranger who won't even show his face! That's a first for me. How about you?"

River held the Doctor's questioning stare, unfaltering. "Our lives are back to front. Your future's my past. Your firsts are my lasts."

"Not really what I asked."

"Ask something else then."

"What are the Silence doing? Raising a child?"

"Keeping her safe? Giving her independence? Your guess is as good as mine."

The Doctor turned his back on River and began to pace. "The only way to save Amy is to work out what the Silence are doing."

"I know," Rory rolled his eyes.

"Every single thing we learn about them brings us a step closer!"

"Doctor, I get it! I know."

"Of course," the Doctor said, continuing his train of thought as though he hadn't been interrupted, "it's possible she's not just any little girl."

"She _was_ taken from a disused children's home that was over-run with those things" Alex reminded the Doctor. "You're probably right."

"Thank you," the Doctor smiled, oblivious to the sarcasm.

"Well, I'd say she's human, going by the life support software."

"But..?"

River sighed, troubled. She gestured towards what remained of the back of the suit; the torn wires, the shredded fabric. "She climbed out of this suit. Like, she forced her way out! She must be incredibly strong."

"Incredibly strong, and running away," the Doctor grinned, inspecting the suit's remnants. "I like her!"

"We should be trying to find her!"

"Yes, I know, but how? We have no leads. Anyway, I have the strangest feeling she's going to find us."

"Why does it look like a NASA space suit?" Rory asked, voicing a question that had been bugging Alex for some time.

"Because that's what the Silence do, think about it," the Doctor said, watching the television with interest, the images of Apollo 11 in particular. "They don't make anything themselves; they don't have to! They get other life-forms to do it for them."

"So they're parasites then?"

"Super-parasites! Standing in the shadows of human history since the very beginning. We _know_ they can influence human behaviour any way they want. If they've been doing that, on a global scale, for thousands of years…"

"Then _what_?"

"Then why did the human race suddenly decide to go to the moon?" the Doctor questioned.

The television got inexplicably louder as the main event began. "_Ten. Nine_," the voice-over man said. "_Ignition-sequence start. Six. Five. Four_,"

"Because the Silence needed a space suit…" the Doctor finished.

"…_One. Zero. All engines on_." With a great explosion of fuel, Apollo 11 forced its way into the skies, slowly at first, but then accelerating rapidly. "_Lift-off. We have lift-off. 32 minutes past the hour, lift-off on Apollo 11_."


	59. Day of the Moon: Three

_Not too bad for a follow-up update. Certainly better than the last gap between updates. I actually wrote the vast majority of this in one sitting, other than around 500 words. As I'm certain I've said before though, it's late now, I've been writing for too long, I'm sick of this chapter and I want to upload, so I can't be all that bothered to proof read :) The computer spelling and grammar check will have to do!_

Day of the Moon: Part Three

The four of them sat in the warehouse, doing their own thing. Alex sat, cross-legged on one of the crates, half-watching the on-going space-launch programme, half-staring into space. The Doctor and River continued to tinker around in the Astronaut suit. Rory stood in the corner, motionless, with Amy's whimpers filling their ears.

_Beep_.

Alex glanced down towards the sound of the beeping noise. River's communicator was signalling that it had received a message.

"Message from Canton," Alex called, chucking the machine towards the Doctor, who caught it and opened the message.

"You should kill us all on sight!" said a horrendous, monstrous voice.

"The bloody hell was that?" Alex asked in shock.

"A plan," the Doctor grinned.

"Doctor," River called before Alex could respond to him. "A unit like this… would it ever be able to move without an occupant?"

"Why?" he asked, leaning over the suit and looking inside.

"Well the little girl said the Spaceman was coming to eat her. Maybe that's exactly what happened…"

"I love you," said a voice. The three of them realised that it was coming from Amy's nano-recorder. "I know you think it ought to be him. But it's not. It's you. And when I see you again, I'm gonna tell you properly. Just to see your stupid face… My life was so boring before you just… dropped out of the sky… Just get your stupid face where I can see it, okay?"

The Doctor wandered over awkwardly and took a seat on the dirt-covered floor next to Rory, who looked distraught. "She'll be safe for now," the Doctor assured him. "No point in a dead hostage,"

Alex rolled his eyes at the Doctor's attempt to be comforting. River smiled at him sadly and continued working on the suit. Alex slowly made his way a little closer to where the two men were talking, to better hear what they were saying. It may have been a private conversation, Alex thought, but it's not like he could help River with the suit. Besides, the television programme had finished.

"…and then what do I do?" the Doctor was asking. "This isn't an alien invasion; they live here! This is their empire. This is kicking the Romans out of Rome."

"Rome fell," Rory reminded the Doctor determinedly.

"I know… I was there…"

"So was I."

The Doctor smirked at Rory. "Personal question…?"

"Seriously? You?" Rory asked sarcastically.

He nodded slowly. "Do you ever remember it? Two thousand years, waiting for Amy? The Last Centurion?"

Alex waited for the response with baited breath. Rory seemed to be taking his own good time in responding.

"No."

"Are you lying?"

"Of course I'm lying," he admitted.

"Of course you are. Not the sort of thing anyone forgets…"

"But I don't remember it all the time. It's like there's a door in my head. I can keep it shut…"

The Doctor, evidently satisfied, got to his feet and turned his head to Alex surreptitiously, apparently having known about his presence all along. He raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Wow!'. He then clapped his hands together and seized River's communicator from a crate. He typed a few buttons on it and disappeared into the TARDIS. He re-emerged a few minutes later with an odd, black device in his hands, around the size of an average brick.

"Right then, you three, in you get. Let's go and kick the Romans out of Rome!"

Surprised at the Doctor's sudden change of attitude, the three of them abandoned what they were doing and piled into the TARDIS.

"Rory, put the nano-recorder into the pod below the helmic regulator," the Doctor ordered. Rory stared at the console blankly. River smirked and pointed it out to him. "Now, let's track that signal," he grinned, typing on the typewriter and selecting options on the scanner. After a few seconds, he clapped again. "Gotcha! Found her. Now, just got to make one quick pit-stop, then we'll be off,"

He landed the TARDIS and ran towards the door, holding the brick object. He opened it and met Canton on the other side. He handed him the object and had a quick, murmured conversation with him. They shook hands, and the Doctor closed the door again. He set the TARDIS back into motion once again. This time, since they were tracing a signal, the ride was considerably less smooth than the previous one, especially as the TARDIS had to break through the defences of the Silent ship. Eventually however, they succeeded.

"Amy's out there?" Rory asked nervously once the TARDIS had landed.

"Let's go and find out," the Doctor grinned. He led the way towards the door and flung them open. "Oh!" he said in surprise as he stepped outside. "Interesting. Very Aickman Road, seen one of these before..."

River followed the Doctor out, gun in hand. Alex in turn followed her. He found himself in an unusual ship. It was similar to a TARDIS, with a sort of central console in a circular room. Memories came flooding back as Alex noticed who and what was piloting the ship.

"Abandoned. Wonder how that happened... Ah well, suppose I'm about to find out," he shrugged and turned to face Alex, River and Rory. "You three, keep one Silent in eye-shot at all times. Oh! Hello!" the Doctor turned back to the Silents. "Were you in the middle of something? Just had to say though, have you seen what's on the telly? Oh, hello Amy!" Alex noticed Amy behind the console, strapped to a chair. The Doctor was carrying the small television, which he placed on top of the console. "You alright? Wanna watch some television? Ah! Stay where you are," he muttered as the Silent Alex was looking at began to make its way towards the Doctor. "Because look at me. I'm confident. You wanna watch that. Me when I'm confident. Oh, and this is my friend River," he noticed River aiming her gun at each Silent in turn, slowly making her way around the room. "Nice hair, clever, has own gun. And unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kinda do a bit."

"Thank you sweetie," River smiled, standing back-to-back with the Doctor.

"I know you're team-players and everything, but she'll definitely kill the first three of you!"

"Oh, the first seven, easily,"

"Seven, really?"

"Oh, eight for you honey,"

"Oh stop it!"

"Make me..."

"Yeah well, maybe I will,"

"Is this really important flirting?" Amy interrupted, still strapped to the chair and flanked by two Silents. "Because I feel like I should be higher on the list right now,"

"Come on," Alex muttered to Rory. They made their way towards Amy, eyes shifting from one Silent to another. Not one Silent tried to stop them. They simply stood there, staring, not making a sound.

"As I was saying," the Doctor said, diverting attention away from Alex and Rory regardless. "My naughty friend here is going to kill the first three of you to attack, plus him behind. So maybe you wanna draw lots, or have a quiz,"

"What's he got?" Amy asked Alex and Rory as they arrived at her and scrabbled at the strange red thread binding her arms and legs to the chair.

"Something, I hope," Rory murmured.

"'Course he has, he always has," Alex assured them both. Amy smiled weakly.

"...All I really want to do," the Doctor announced, walking the perimeter of the room, "is accept your total surrender, and then I'll let you go in peace," he said with a flourish of the arms. "Yes, you've been interfering in human history for thousands of years! Yes, people have suffered and died, but what's the point in two hearts if you can't be a bit forgiving now and then?" The Silent he was talking to bore down on him, the height difference between it and the Doctor strikingly obvious. "Ooh. The Silence. You guys take that seriously, don't you? Okay, you got me, I'm lying, I'm not really gonna let you go that easily. Nice thought, but it's not Christmas,"

"What is this stuff?" Alex grunted as he yanked Amy's bindings to no avail.

"We need the Sonic,"

"First! You tell me about the girl. Who is she? Why's she important? What's she for?"

The television fired up. A black and white, grainy image appeared on it, distracting Alex, Rory and Amy for a moment. As Alex's eyes accustomed to the old technology, and he remembered the year, he realised that it was footage of the moon landing of 1969.

"Aren't you proud?" the Doctor asked the Silents, pulling up the antennae of the television, improving the picture quality. "Because you helped! Now. D'you know how many people are watching this, live on the telly?" he patted the television, smiling. "Half a billion! And that's nothing, because the Human Race will spread out among the stars and you just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years. And every single one of them, at some point in their lives, will look back at this man," he pointed to the screen, which showed a grainy, terrible image of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the lunar pod, "taking that very first step and they will never, ever, forget it."

"Okay, I'm about to step off the ladder now," said Armstrong's patchy, interference-stricken voice.

"Oh, but they'll forget this bit," the Doctor said suddenly. He took out his radio and placed it to his mouth. "Ready?"

"Here we go," Armstrong said. Alex turned his eyes back to the screen, stomach aflutter in anticipation of he didn't know what. "That's one small step for man!"

A black-and-white image of a Silent flashed up on the screen. "_You should kill us all on sight_!"

"You've given the order for your own execution," the Doctor told them.

"_You should kill us all on sight!"_

"And the whole planet just heard you."

"_You should kill us all on sight!"_

"One giant leap for mankind!" Armstrong finished, reappearing on the screen.

"And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence!" the Doctor shouted in triumph. "You just raised an army against yourself! And now, for a thousand generations, you're going to be ordering them to destroy you every day. How fast can you run?"

The Silent that the Doctor was talking to began to approach him slowly, menacingly, venomously.

"Because today's the day the Human Race throw you off their planet," the Doctor went on undeterred. "They won't even know they're doing it! I think, quite possibly, the word you're looking for right now is 'oops!' Run!" The Silents began to growl and snarl, slowly raising their long fingers. "Guys, I mean us! Run!"

The Silents attacked. They seemed to draw electrical energy from the very air around them and directed it into bolts of electricity, which they fired at the group. River drew a gun and began to fire mercilessly at the creatures, far exceeding her target of three, and quickly approaching her promise of eight.

Alex, Rory and Amy continued to fight Amy's bindings, having to both attempt to break them and avoid the Silents' attacks at the same time. Fortunately, they seemed to be concentrating their efforts on River and the Doctor, and seemed to have forgotten about their prisoner.

"They won't budge!" Rory cried in frustration, yanking at the odd rope as hard as he could. He shouted out in anger. A Silent nearby noticed the three of them and looked directly at Rory, slowly making its way towards the three of them.

Alex acted almost on instinct. He had seen River holster a second pistol to her boot back in the TARDIS. He spun on the spot, reached down, and pulled it out of River's shoe-holster, who was standing conveniently close. Alex turned back around and opened fire on the approaching Silent, stopping it, quite literally, dead in its tracks

"When did you learn to fire a gun like that?" River shouted, impressed, as she took out two more of the creatures.

"You don't spend time with Jack Harkness without picking up a thing or two," Alex grinned, taking out another Silent of his own.

"Sounds like my kind of guy," River called back.

"What are you doing?" Suddenly, the Doctor was by Alex's side, visibly shocked and surprised. He yanked the gun out of Alex's hands.

"Oi! I was helping!"

"I'm not having you be any more of a murderer than you already are. Get them back to the TARDIS!" He pushed Alex towards Amy, who was finally out of the chair, and Rory, who was supporting her. "Don't let them build to full power!" he called to River as they left.

"I know! There's a reason why I'm shooting, honey!"

Staying low to the ground, the three of them fought their way towards the sanctuary of the TARDIS and dove inside. Alex quickly ran to the monitor and turned it on, giving the three of them a view of what was taking place outside. The Doctor appeared to be disabling any electronic equipment on the ship, limiting the electrical energy the Silents were able to draw. River was then taking advantage of their weakened state, mercilessly firing upon each and every one. As they watched in awe, the doors to the TARDIS opened once more, with the Doctor fighting his way inside. He joined them at the monitor and watched as River skilfully, ruthlessly and near-singlehandedly destroyed every single creature in the ship, until she was alone. Sparks and steam fell from the ceiling, half-concealing the many dead Silent bodies.

N

"So we're safe again!" Nixon chuckled, heartily shaking the Doctor's hand. The Doctor had landed in the Oval Office back in Washington once more. The President had greeted them warmly and called in Canton for what they called the 'debrief'. Grudgingly, the Doctor had 'debriefed' the two of them, informing them of the on-going situation.

"Safe?" the Doctor asked incredulously. "No! Of course you're not safe; there's about a billion other things out there just waiting to burn your whole world. But, if you want to pretend you're safe, just so you can sleep at night, okay, you're safe. But you're not really."

Nixon was speechless. His face had become less and less comfortable over the past few seconds, and now looked as though his brain was near melting. Fortunately for him, the Doctor turned to Canton, giving Nixon an excuse not to reply.

"Canton. 'Till the next one, eh?"

"Looking forward to it," Canton replied.

"Canton just wants to get married," the Doctor reminded Nixon, turning back to him. "Hell of a reason to kick him out of the FBI."

"Well I'm sure something can be arranged," Nixon smiled.

"I'm counting on you." The Doctor turned to leave, but was stopped by Nixon.

"Uhh, Doctor. Canton here tells me you're, uh… you're from the future. Hardly seems possible, but… I was wondering-"

"Should warn you," the Doctor interrupted. "I don't answer a lot of questions."

"But I'm a President at the beginning of his time! Dare I ask? Will I be remembered?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Oh Dicky. Tricky Dicky. They're _never_ going to forget you," he assured Nixon. He then turned on his feel and marched back towards the TARDIS. The others followed suit. "Say hi to David Frost for me," the Doctor added as he closed the doors.

N

"I'll miss Canton, y'know," Alex mused as he leaned back in one of the TARDIS chairs. "He was a good guy. I mean, you meet a lot of FBI and CIA and MI6 guys, and they're cocky, know-it-all, Mr-I'm-Amazing. But Canton wasn't. He's a good man."

"Yeah," Rory agreed. "I meet a lot of FBI and CIA and MI6 guys."

"You know what I mean," Alex rolled his eyes. He picked himself up from the chair and headed towards the door to see what was taking the Doctor so long. They had landed back in Stormcage to drop River off. He pulled open the door and stuck his head out. His eyes widened and he withdrew it again. "Check this out," he called to Amy and Rory, sprinting towards the monitor and switching it on once again.

The screen showed a dank corridor, devoid of all colour, and thunder, lightning and heavy rain pounding at the window of the cell. The really interesting things however, were the Doctor and River; they were kissing. Passionately. Alex and Amy began to giggle like schoolchildren. Alex had seen the Doctor act mildly romantically in his time, but that had been almost exclusively in his previous body, and even then not this passionately. The two of them broke apart. After a short conversation, the Doctor practically ran back to the TARDIS and slammed the doors behind him. Alex hurriedly switched off the monitor and threw himself back into the chair. Amy and Rory delved deep into an imaginary conversation.

"You alright?" Alex asked as the Doctor climbed the steps to the console, looking slightly uneven on his feet.

The Doctor nodded. He readied the TARDIS for take-off again, switching on the scanner as he did so. He took note of where was on the screen, and his eyes visibly widened. Alex heard a stifled snort of laughter from Amy's vicinity.

…

"Rory, I'm going to need thermo-couplings. The green ones and the blue ones," the Doctor told Rory, returning to the console room.

"Okay," Rory nodded as he left to look for the couplings. "Hold on."

"Oh… red ones as well…" the Doctor muttered. "Alex, could you-?"

"On it," Alex replied, already out of the room. He soon caught up to Rory, who was standing bolt up-right, nowhere near where the thermo-couplings were stored. Amy's voice filled the echoing corridor, despite Alex having seen her in the console room just seconds before. He realised Rory was listening to Amy and the Doctor's conversation through the nano-recorder. He couldn't exactly reprimand Rory for eavesdropping. Alex himself had done the same thing a short time previously.

"Because I was! I mean I, I thought I was. Turns out, I wasn't!"

"No, why did you tell _us_?" the Doctor's voice then asked.

"Because you're my friends. You're my best friends. I've known you both since I was seven years old."

"Did you tell Rory?"

A pause. Then: "No."

"Amy, why tell us and not Rory?"

"Why d'you think? I travelled with you in this TARDIS for so long… All that time. If I _was_ pregnant for some of it, wouldn't it have had an effect? I don't want to tell Rory his baby might have three heads, or like a Time Head, or something…"

The Doctor chuckled. "What's a Time Head?"

"I don't know, but what if it had one?"

"A Time Head?" the Doctor laughed.

"Shut up all right?" Amy laughed too. "Oi, Stupid Face!"

Rory stiffened up. He turned around to see Alex watching him from behind, smirking. "Uh, yeah?" he asked, making his way back from the corridor, past Alex to the console room. "Hello!" he said shakily to Amy and the Doctor. The Doctor waved cheerily.

"Taking that away from you if you're gonna listen in all the time!" Amy warned him.

"Okay. Okay, that's a fair point. But you should've told me that you thought you were pregnant!" No-one replied. "I'm a nurse, I'm good with pregnancy!" he continued.

"Not, as it turns out, that good," Amy said cheekily. "So would you stop being stupid?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Uhh, no. I'm never, ever going to stop being stupid!" Rory cried, picking Amy up playfully and making her shriek.

"So, this little girl, it's all about her, who was she?" the Doctor asked, pulling the screen around to his side of the console as Alex retook his seat. He pressed a few controls. "Or, we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for that, adventures? 'Cos I am! You only live once! Whose turn to pick where we go? Who has a coin to flip?"


	60. The Curse of the Black Spot

_Hello! What a ridiculously long time since I last uploaded. To be honest, I fell out of love with the project. It's a __**hell**__ of a lot of work! But I did and still do enjoy imagining what Alex might get up to in these episodes, so I've compromised. I won't be writing out every bit of every episode – instead, I'm going to write various points of each episode in Series 6, with each episode getting one chapter. Hopefully this will work!_

The Curse of the Black Spot 

"Ooh!" the Doctor exclaimed happily. "I'm getting a distress signal!"

"Only with you would that be good," Alex told him. "A distress signal means people are distressed? Don't look so happy!"

"You realise you're smiling as you say that?" the Doctor asked, typing on the typewriter in an attempt to follow the signal. "Anyway, I don't think this is a 'real' distress signal. Can't be."

"Why not?"

"Because it's coming from the 1600s. Must be a psychic signal, picked up the sensors. Only explanation. It's pretty solid though. Psychic signals normally take more power to follow. I reckon we can land right now."

"Then let's go!" Amy cried from atop one of the staircases. She slid down the bannister with her legs to one side and jumped off the end. The TARDIS landed with a bang. "So where are we?"

The Doctor pulled his tweed jacket from one of the chairs and pulled it on as he walked towards the door. "Let's find out," he grinned.

They found themselves in a wooden room. There were wooden crates on the wooden floor lining the wooden walls, separated by wooden beams supporting the wooden ceiling.

"Where are we then?" Amy asked, walking forward apprehensively, avoiding small puddles of water as she went.

"A boat?" Alex asked, noting the water and the very slight rocking sensation that could only come from the movement of water. "I hate boats," he moaned.

"Why?" Amy chuckled.

"I get sea sick,"

"And yet you can travel on that thing, no problem?" she laughed, pointing to the TARDIS.

"I think you'll be alright on this ship," the Doctor told Alex. "It's not moving. I don't think it has for a while,"

"Oh my god!" Rory cried. He had pried open one of the crates nearby. They all gathered around it. Inside were glistening jewels and fine fabrics.

The Doctor reached in and pulled out a solid silver tiara, encrusted with rubies. "Pirates!" he said happily. "Pirate swag!"

"Did we just break into a crate of pirate loot?" Rory asked nervously.

"No, of course we didn't! _You_ just broke into a crate of pirate loot."

Rory rolled his eyes and closed the crate again, making sure it looked exactly as it had when he'd found it. "So, are we going then?" he asked.

"Why would we go?" the Doctor asked, genuinely confused.

"They're pirates? Murderers, rapists, pillagers, thieves, everything else?"

"You've clearly never met Dave, Captain of the Angry Eel. Not _all_ pirates are bad,"

"No, surprisingly, I haven't. And what if this isn't _Dave's_ ship?"

They heard some footsteps overhead. "Well let's find out," the Doctor grinned, jumping onto a crate and banging on the hatch in the ceiling.

The rest of them watched anxiously. There was no reply. He banged again. They gathered around him to see what might lie above them. He banged a third time and managed to push the hatch open. A group of bearded-men were staring at them in shock and surprise. The middle pirate was aiming a revolver at them.

"Yo ho ho!" the Doctor exclaimed cheerily. The pirates glared at him in silence. The Doctor's face dropped. "Or does nobody actually say that?"

The men seized the Doctor, Rory and Alex under the arms and literally hoisted them out of the hold. The captain pointed the revolver at Amy and gestured for her to get out too. The four of them were then marched into the cabin, as the pirates muttered to each other nervously.

"Not Captain Dave then?" Alex murmured to the Doctor.

He shook his head. The captain of the ship turned to the four of them as the door to the room was closed. It seemed almost an office, with a desk at the centre of the room. The room was intricately decorated, with golden-plated ornaments lining the walls.

"Explain yourselves," the captain said at last.

"We're here to help," the Doctor smiled. "We caught your signal, thought we'd pop in, see if we could do anything to help."

"We made no signal," the man frowned.

"Our sensors picked you up. Ship in distress," the Doctor explained.

"_Sensors_?"

"Yes. Oh! Okay, problem word. Seventeenth century. My ship automatically… noticed, ish… that your ship was… having some bother."

"That big blue crate?" the captain asked derisively. The Doctor clicked his fingers in answer to the man's question.

"This is more magic Captain Avery," murmured one pirate, eyeing the four of them warily. "They're spirits!"

"_More_ magic?" Alex interrupted. A smack to the back of his head told him to be quiet.

"How else would they have found their way below decks?" the pirate continued.

"Well," the Doctor began, struggling. "I want to say multi-dimensional engineering, but since we had a problem with sensors, I won't go there. Look, I'm the Doctor. This is Amy, Rory, Alex. We're sailors! Same as you!" he cried happily, punching Avery on the shoulder in jest. Apparently taking this badly, Avery drew his pistol and pointed it at the Doctor again, whose face fell. "Apart from the guns… and the beardiness…"

"You're stowaways," Avery stated assuredly. "Only explanation. Eight days, we've been stranded here. Becalmed. You must've stowed away before we sailed…"

"What do we do with them?" a pirate from somewhere near the back asked.

"Oh, I think they deserve our hospitality," Avery grinned, menacingly.

T

Correctly assuming that the Doctor was in charge, the pirates had selected him to walk the plank first. He was pushed onto the board at the point of a sword as the group of pirates laughed heartily and cruelly.

"I suppose laughing like that is in the job description," the Doctor murmured as he took his place at the end of the plank. "'Can you do the laugh? Check. Grab yourself a parrot, welcome aboard!'"

"Stocks are low. Only one barrel of water remains," Avery explained, almost apologetically. "We don't need four more empty bellies to fill. Take the doxy below, to the galley, set her to work. She won't need much feeding."

Amid protests from Rory and Alex, Amy was dragged away by one of the pirates towards a door below decks.

"Rory? Little help?" Amy asked as she was taken away.

"Hey, yeah, listen," Rory tried. "She's not a doxy."

"Didn't mean just tell 'em off, but thanks anyway," Amy moaned as she was forced through the small door.

"If you're lucky, you'll drown before the sharks can take a bite," Avery told the Doctor, speaking up once more as Amy disappeared.

"If this is just because I'm a captain too, y'know, you shouldn't feel threatened," the Doctor mentioned. "Your ship is much bigger than mine. And I don't have the cool boots, or a hat, even…"

"It's possible they're doing it because they're cold-blooded pirates," Alex pointed out.

As if on cue, Avery removed his pistol and pointed it at the Doctor. "Time to go."

The Doctor limbered up on the board as if he were about to make an Olympic dive. "A bit more laughter, guys!" he cried to the pirates, who were more than happy to oblige. Stereotypically piratey laughter rose from the group. "Where's the rest of the crew?" he continued, feeling he had bought himself some time. "This is a big ship; bit big for five of you. Maybe they're all hiding someplace, and they're all going to jump out and shout 'boo!'."

"BOO!" shouted a familiar voice.

The pirates, the Doctor, Alex and Rory all turned towards the sound. The pirates even slackened their grip on Alex and Rory in surprise. Amy had put on some striking pirate garb – including a hat – and was wielding a sharp sword, which she was holding inches from Avery's hairy chin.

"Put the gun down," she ordered threateningly. Keeping a wary eye on the sword's point all the while, Avery obliged, bending slightly and dropping the gun to the deck. She kicked it away from him. "The rest of you; on your knees."

"Amy, what are you doing?" warned the Doctor.

"Saving your life. Okay with that, are you?"

"Put down the sword," Avery begged. "A sword could kill us all."

"Yeah, thanks! That's actually why I'm pointing it at you…"

Breaking the silence, one of the pirates lunged forward, swinging a mop at Amy, using the long wooden stick as a makeshift sword. The other pirates cheered him on and jeered Amy as she defended herself, admittedly, rather well. A pirate stayed on both Rory and Alex while Avery tussled with the Doctor to keep him secured. As the fighting continued, Amy began to gain the upper hand. She lunged with her sword. All five pirates winced and recoiled in horror, eyeing the sword as if it were a ticking bomb.

The pirate with the mop jumped forwards again, forcing Amy to stop smiling proudly and return to fighting for her life. She kicked him in the leg and forced him to the ground, defeated. A second pirate stepped forward, swinging a thick length of rope. As he did so, Amy climbed the nearest rigging and swung forward, clinging onto a rope and kicking out at the pirate, who ducked out of the way, shouting out in terror. Amy swung with her sword, knicking one of the pirate's hands. All pirate eyes rested on the small cut on the man's finger.

"You have killed me," he whispered at her.

"No way! It's just a cut! What kind of rubbish pirates are you?"

"One drop! That's all it takes!" Avery cried. "One drop of blood and she'll rise out of the ocean!"

"Come on… I barely even scratched him! What're you all in such a huff about?!"

One of the pirates came towards Amy angrily. She swung on the rope again but the pirate dodged her and grabbed her by the legs, stopping her in her tracks. Her sword flew into the air and sliced Rory's hand as he broke out of his hold and ran to defend Amy.

"Argh!" Rory shouted in pain. He looked at his hand and frowned, not struggling as the pirate seized hold of him again. He held up his hand. "Doctor, what's happening to me?" In the centre of his palm had appeared a dark, black spot.

"She can smell the blood on your skin," Avery warned, "she's marked you for death."

"'She'?"

"A demon… out there in the ocean…"

"Okay, groovy!" the Doctor said happily. "So not just pirates today, we've managed to bagsy a ship where there's a demon popping in!" He strolled forward and inspected Rory's palm. "Very efficient. I mean, if something's gonna kill you, it's nice that it drops you a note to remind you."

An eerie, yet beautiful singing sound filled the air, seemingly emanating from the very ocean itself. Looks of sheer terror covered the pirates' faces while, contrastingly, a large grin formed on the Doctor's.

"Quickly now, block out the sound," commanded one of the men to the pirate with the cut, who hurriedly covered his hands with his ears.

"What?" asked Rory nervously.

"The creature. She charms all of her victims with that song," Avery explained.

"Oh great. So put my fingers in my ears? That's your plan? Doctor, come on. Let's go, let's get back to the… uh…" Rory tailed off, a dreamy expression floating onto his face, as he began to lose footing. He chuckled. He turned to the injured pirate and they embraced, giggling together.

"The music," muttered Avery's first mate. "It's working on him. Look."

"_You_! Are _so beautiful_!" Rory cried to Amy, in an almost drunken state. She recoiled slightly, confused. "Look at your get-up! It's great. You should act as a pirate more often. Hey. Cuddle me shipmate."

"Rory, stop it," Amy ordered as Rory tried to force a hug out of Amy.

"Everything is totally brilliant, isn't it?! Huh? Look at these brilliant pirates! Look at their brilliant beards! I'd like a beard. I'm going to grow a beard."

"The music turns them into fools," Avery announced as Rory and the pirate collapsed into a fit of giggles again.

All eyes turned to the ocean as the music intensified. A ghostly, green figure emerged from the ocean and gracefully floated down until it stood on the deck of the ship. It was a woman. A beautiful woman in a simple dress, with a green glow emanating from her. Her mouth was open; she was singing the song herself. She extended her hand and smiled at Rory and the pirate.

"What's she doing?" Alex murmured to the Doctor, both staring intently.

"Let's find out…"

The pirate broke forward, stumbling towards the woman.

"We should stop him," Alex muttered, entranced.

Avery and the Doctor half-heartedly extend an arm towards the pirate, but did no more to help. As the pirate drew closer, he giggled again and extended his arm. The spell over the men broke; the pirate had disappeared. All that remained were the echoes of his scream and a small pile of dust on the floor. Unaffected by this show of brutality, Rory forced his way through the group.

"I want to touch her!" he moaned as he got held back.

Amy pushed her way past Rory, pushing him back into the arms of Alex and the Doctor.

"Sorry, but he is spoken for!" she said to the creature, resolutely.

The change was instantaneous. The woman's face morphed into one of horror. Fangs grew in her mouth, her eyes darkened, and her glow turned blood red. She screeched and forced Amy back, flying through the air until she came crashing down to the floor. The Doctor ran back to see to her as Alex did all he could to hold Rory back.

"Down below!" the Doctor cried. He helped Amy to her feet and followed the collection of pirates as they piled down the steps to the hold. Alex forced Rory down and through the small doorway as the creature continued to sing its song.

T

"Open the door!" came the Doctor's cry from the other side of the door.

"Toby! Open the door! Toby!" Avery added. Both were pounding on the door now. Alex, Amy and Rory jumped up and began to shift barrels from in front of the door. Finally, they pulled back the latch and opened it. The Doctor burst into the room and snatched the medallion from Toby. He held it close to his mouth and breathed heavily on it until it was suitably foggy. He took some deep breaths and gave Avery a thumbs up. He then threw Toby the medallion back and ran from the room.

"Stay here," Avery told them as he ran after him.

Alex and Amy exchanged looks. "I'll see what's going on," Alex said as he ran from the room.

He followed Avery through the ship until he reached the captain's quarters. The Doctor was smashing windows with the butt of a rifle.

"We have to destroy every reflection!" he cried. "Gold, silver, glass! She could spring from any of them!"

"Any of them?" Alex asked.

The Doctor stopped his assault and turned in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"We wanted to know what's going on!"

"The Siren can arise from any clear surface. Anything that bears a reflection is her doorway into reality," Avery explained as the Doctor smashed a mirror with the gun.

"Doctor..?" Alex asked, slightly stunned at the revelation.

"Yeah, I know, very bad luck to break it. But look at it this way. There's a stroppy, homicidal mermaid coming to kill all."

"How much worse can it get?" Avery asked.

"Yep. Alex, take this, smash anything you can find. Glass, mirrors. Get rid of anything shiny, but _don't get cut_!" He handed him the rifle and turned to Avery. "Help me lug this lot out."

Alex ran from the room and made his way back to Amy, Rory and Toby, popping into rooms and smashing as he went. Eventually, he reached the magazine, pushed the door open and looked around the room. No glass.

"So… what's going on then?" Amy asked as he entered, eyes locked on the rifle in Alex's hands.

"It's not loaded. I think. Anyway, the Siren can use any reflective surface as a portal to our world. So we're smashing glass. Get rid of anything reflective that's on you."

"I have a 50p coin…" Rory said, bemused, as he checked his pocket.

"Uhh… make it dirty, stick it in a barrel."

"It's from 1971, it's already dirty," he said as he re-pocketed it.

"It's from when?" asked Toby.

T

"To the rigging, you dogs!" Avery shouted from more rigging. The rain was coming down hard, with the wind half drowning out his words. "Let go the sails! Avast ye!"

Alex, Amy and Rory did as they were told, rushing to the rigging and waiting as Avery prepared some rope and a wheel.

"Put the bunt into the sack of the clews!"

"Put the funk into the back of the shoes?" asked Alex.

"We need some sort of phrase book," Rory added.

Avery talks quietly to Toby, who rushes away, before turning his attention back to them. "Heave ho you bilge rats!"

"Rats was all I heard!" Rory shouted.

"He's making half this stuff up!" Amy cried over the weather.

"Ah!" Alex cried as he put a hand on the mast of the ship. A shooting pain went through his entire hand.

"What is it?" Amy called.

"Nothing," Alex responded, checking over his hand and seeing neither cut nor spot.

"You there!" Avery shouted, staggering over. He was shouting at Alex. "Get down below, find out what's taking Toby so long!"

"Yes Captain!" Alex saluted, happy to get out of the rain for even a short while.

Leaving Amy and Rory, he stumbled towards the stairs below, diving inside for a reprieve from the weather. Inside was just as wet, with water dripping from the ceiling. The movement of the ship was such, however, that no puddle stayed still long enough for the Siren to appear.

"Toby?!" Alex called.

"Got it!" came the reply. Toby came jogging out of the room next-door, carrying a large coat. He smiled at Alex and hurried back up the stairs into the hell that lay above.

"Oh good," Alex said, sighing as he shook his sleeve away so he could check his watch. "That break lasted all of eleven seconds."

As he turned to climb the stairs again, the door at the top blew closed as a particularly strong gust of wind struck the ship. The few candles still burning down below blew out as Alex was thrown to the ground. Groaning in the pitch-darkness he didn't at first notice the quiet singing that was filling his ears. It was a beautiful song, Alex realised, as he came to notice it. He wondered who the singer was…

The darkness was penetrated as a beautiful, green light filled the room. It was shining out of his watch-face. The light intensified until it was blinding. Alex shielded his eyes and, when he lowered his hands, he saw a face. At the centre of the light was the most wonderful face Alex had ever laid eyes on. What was he doing still lying on the floor? He jumped to his feet and made his way towards the woman…

T

Alex slowly opened his eyes. Where he was, he didn't know. But he could see wires, tubes, dials and all manner of medical equipment surrounding him. The lighting was dim. He tried to move his arm and found that he was strapped into place.

"Hey!" he called out, fully-expecting not to get a response. He lifted his head as far as he could and got a good look at his surroundings. There were various men in a similar position to him, but none of them seemed to be conscious. Looking around, he really did seem to be in some kind of futuristic hospital. He was certainly off the ship.

A green hue entered the room, quickly followed by the Siren. Alex found he was unable to speak as the creature made her way directly toward him. He struggled against his bonds as she put her hand slowly over his chest. She closed her eyes and exhaled, sighing. Alex struggled no more, closing his eyes…

T

Alex opened his eyes again. This time, however, his view was much more friendly; the Doctor's grinning face.

"Yes. I promise," the Doctor said, looking up.

Awkwardly angling his head, Alex noticed he was talking to the Siren. The Siren nodded her understanding and faded out of being.

"Let's get you up," the Doctor continued, sonicing the tubes leading to Alex and yanking them out. "Totally unnecessary." He undid the straps binding Alex to the tables, and helped him to his feet.

"Why am I shirtless?" Alex asked, bemused.

"She's a female nurse," the Doctor pointed out.

"She's a _nurse_!"

"Well of course she's a nurse, what else would she be? I just proved to her that we're related, so she allowed me to take responsibility for you. You've been discharged," he smiled, clapping Alex on the shoulder and walking over to where Amy was leaning. Alex realised that Rory was in another of the beds, muttering something to Amy. Avery was sat by a third bed, stroking Toby's unmoving body caringly. "Oh, by the way," the Doctor said, returning. "Rory drowned, the Siren saved him, but now he can't be removed from his bed without suffocating, but we're going to rip off his life-support machine anyway, drag him into the TARDIS, which we've also found, and attempt to resuscitate him. Alright?"

Alex took a moment to take this in. "Uh. Alright then."

"Good, because we'll need you to help carry him. C'mon."

"I know you can do this," Rory was muttering to Amy as Alex and the Doctor joined them. "Of course… if you don't, I'll be really cross. And dead."

"Again," Alex pointed out, misjudging the mood.

"Again," Rory agreed.

"I'll see you in a minute," Amy whispered, tears dripping from her nose.

The three noded at each other and, as one pulled everything from Rory. He convulsed, gasping for air. Together, they pick him up and hurriedly carry him inside the TARDIS.

T

"So what made her so interested in you?" Amy asked Alex, as they all recuperated in the TARDIS console room. The Doctor was flying it absent-mindedly, strolling around the console in circles.

"I don't actually know. I thought I got a splinter at one point, but…" he shrugged.

"And where did she emerge from?" Rory asked. "Not the water, not down there… and we'd got rid of all the glass and stuff."

"My watch. The watch-face. It had been up my sleeve up until that point, but I got it out when I was down there."

"Watches! Didn't even cross my mind," the Doctor said, pulling a lever as he checked his own watch.

"Right, let's go to bed," Amy said, patting Rory on the knee. She stood up and, taking him by the hands, pulled him to his feet. "Night," she said to Alex as she passed, tousling his hair.

"Night," Alex and Rory said as one.

"You know, I thought I was an excellent pirate," Amy said as she ascended the stairs.

"I thought you were an excellent _nurse_," Rory replied with a smirk.

"Easy tiger! Night Doctor," she called.

"Good night Amelia," the Doctor replied with a smile.

Amy frowned. "You only call me Amelia when you're worrying about me."

"I always worry about you," he muttered.

"Mutual…"

Knowing what Amy was thinking, Alex twisted in his chair and glared at Amy, slowly shaking his head.

"Go to bed, Pond!" the Doctor cried. She nodded her understanding towards Alex and turned away, whispering to Rory as she went.


	61. The Doctor's Wife

_Damn. I missed my aim of uploading within a week by 21 minutes._

_Glad to see that the new format has been well-received :) And also that so many of you still came back to read, even though it's been a good six months since my last upload! I certainly recognised a lot of reviewer names!_

_So, how will I choose which scenes to write? It's gonna be scenes that are important for the arc concerning Alex, ones that I just feel he has something to add, ones that are generally important, or ones that I like, along with any that I specifically add. Obviously, the plot of some episodes get altered slightly due to his inclusion, so that will also be an issue. Anyway..!_

The Doctor's Wife

"And then we discovered," the Doctor said, as he waltzed around the console, "it wasn't the Robot King after all, it was the real one. Fortunately, I was able to reattach the head."

"Do you believe any of this stuff?" Rory asked, swivelling on his chair, looking from Amy to Alex and back again.

Amy sighed. "We were there."

As they spoke, red lights dotted all over the console began to flash, accompanied by an irritating noise. "Oh, it's the warning lights! I'm getting rid of those; they never stop!"

"What's the warning?" Alex asked with interest as Amy and Rory sloped off, whispering to each other.

"I've no idea,"

"So they don't tell you what they're warning you about?"

"Nope, that was the deluxe pack and I couldn-"

A knocking at the door interrupted them. They both turned to stare at the door in confusion.

"What was that?" Amy asked, returning.

"The door," replied the Doctor. "Someone knocked on the door…"

"Right… We are in deep space…" Rory pointed out.

"Very, very deep," the Doctor agreed, slowly approaching the door as it knocked again. "And somebody's knocking!" Taking a deep breath and grinning, he slowly pulled the double doors open.

A small object was floating outside. It was a cube, buzzing with neon lighting, darting around.

"Oh come here," the Doctor said happily, extending a hand slowly. "Come here you scrumptious little beauty…"

The cube dodged his hand and zoomed inside, darting and jumping around the room in circles. Alex, Amy and Rory all ducked and dived out of its way as it flew, before it eventually collided with the Doctor and fell to the floor. The Doctor jumped on top of it and picked it up.

"A box?" Rory asked in bemusement.

"What the hell is it?"

The Doctor held the cube up and gazed at it in shock and awe. "I've got mail!" he grinned.

' E

"Yeah, there is nothing useful here," Alex concluded, throwing a broken egg whisk over his shoulder. "Why is there even a planet if we're outside the universe? What's it for?"

The Doctor picked up a stone from the ground. "Well, let's have a look." He threw it into the air and watched as it fell back to ground. "Gravity's almost Earth-normal, air's breathable, but it _smells _of…"

"Armpits," said Amy, her nose wrinkled up.

"Armpits," the Doctor agreed.

"What about all this stuff?" asked Rory as he inspected a rusty old lamp shade. "Where did all this come from?"

"Well, there's a rift, now and then stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble; a plughole! The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it."

"Thief! Thief! You're my thief!" cried a voice from somewhere. Hurried footsteps and other voices accompanied it. Eventually, a crazed-looking woman came into view, running towards the Doctor, pointing at him.

"She's dangerous! Guard yourselves!" a second woman called.

The first woman reached the Doctor and began to manhandle him as she rambled. "Look at you! Goodbye! No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" she asked as she locked her lips onto his, prompting her friends to leap forward and pry her away from the Doctor, as Amy, Rory and Alex stood, rooted to the spot, completely perplexed.

The man laughed nervously as the Doctor wiped his mouth. "Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person." He spoke with a bizarre accent, but in good English.

"Why am I a thief?" the Doctor asked her. "What have I stolen?"

"Me!" she cried, as if it were obvious. She then frowned. "You're _going_ to steal me. You _have_ stolen me. You _are_ stealing me. Oh! Tenses are difficult, aren't they?"

"Oh, we are sorry, my dove! She's off her 'ead. They call me Auntie," said Auntie, shaking their hands individually, as the crazy woman wandered around, inspecting various pieces of rubbish.

"I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's uncle. Just keep back from this one," he said, leaning in to the Doctor and gesturing to the woman, who had returned. "She bites!"

"Do I? Excellent." She seized the Doctor and apparently sunk her teeth into the Doctor's neck, who promptly shouted out in pain. Amy, Rory and Alex continued to stand in shock, not attempting to help. "Biting's excellent!" she proclaimed when Uncle had pulled her off of the Doctor. "It's like kissing, only there's a winner."

"Sorry," Uncle said again. "She's doolally."

"I'm not doolally. I'm… I'm…" she tailed off, continuing the 'm' sound. "I'm… It's on the tip of my tongue! I've just had an excellent new idea about kissing. Come here!"

"Idris, no!" cried Auntie as she leapt for the Doctor again, who jumped and took shelter behind Amy, Rory and Alex, who at last helped the Doctor, holding out their hands to stop her advance. She instead stopped of her own accord, deep in thought. "Oh, but now you're angry. No. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry."

"Boxes?" the Doctor asked, slowly stepping forward, intrigued. "What about the boxes?"

Idris burst out laughing and pinched the Doctor's chin. "Your chin is hilarious! It means the smell of wet dust after rain," she said, turning her eyes to Rory.

"What does?" he asked, glancing at Amy.

"Petrichor."

"But I didn't ask…"

"Not yet. But you will." She then turned to Alex. "Check your hand."

Alex stared at her in confusion. Then, slowly, he raised a palm and showed it to her. "There's nothing there."

"Are you sure?"

"Now, now, Idris," said Auntie, stepping forward. "I think you should have a rest."

"Yes, good idea. I'll just see if there's an off-switch." With that, she collapsed into Rory's arms, quite unconscious.

"Is that it? She dead now?" asked Uncle. "So sad."

"No, she's still breathing," Rory confirmed, having placed her in a nearby chair.

"Nephew, take Idris somewhere she cannot bite people, hm?"

Alex and the Doctor turn around at the prospect of meeting another family member. Alex laughed as he saw the Ood standing there. Its eyes shone a bright, luminous green colour.

"Oh hello!" the Doctor grinned, equally amused at the unexpected arrival. Amy and Rory turn and recoil in horror.

"Doctor, what is _that_?"

"It's alright, it's an Ood!" he said happily. "Oods are good, love an Ood! Hello Ood!"

"Slave race," Alex explained as the Doctor approached the Ood happily. "Happy to be slaves. Born to be slaves… but easily influenced."

"How d'you mean?" asked Rory.

"Well they deal with… psychic… stuff. I don't really get it, but their psychic…ness, is easy to… hack into."

"Which is good for us, because its translator ball is damaged," the Doctor said cheerfully, taking the Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket. "May I?" he asked the Ood. It nodded. "It may just be on the wrong frequency," the Doctor muttered as he opened the ball and began tinkering around inside.

"Nephew was broken when he came here," explained Auntie. "Half-dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us."

"House?"

The Doctor finished his work on the translator ball. It lit up in the same green light as the Ood's eyes and began transmitting. "If you are receiving this message, please help me," said a man's voice, amid other, indistinguishable, murmuring voices. "Send a message to the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Help me, I'm still alive! I don't know where I am… I'm on some rock-like planet, I-"

The message cut off as the Ood turned the ball off.

"What was that?" Rory asked after a moment. "Was that him?"

"No. No, that was picking up something else… but that's… that's not possible. That's… who else is here? Show me. Show me!" he demanded, striding towards Auntie and Uncle.

"Just what you see," Auntie replied, stepping back. "Just the four of us. And the House. Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?"

"House. What's the House?" the Doctor asked as Nephew picked up Idris and carried her away.

"House is all around you, my sweet! You are standing on him," Auntie said happily. Uncle jumped up and down on the spot to illustrate her point. "This _is_ the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"_Meet_ him?"

"I'd love to," the Doctor replied, silencing Rory. Auntie and Uncle sloped away and into a dark tunnel in the mountainside, prompting the Doctor, Alex, Amy and Rory to follow.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked quietly as they went. "What were those voices?"

"Time Lords. Not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by, there are lots and lots of Time Lords…"

' E

"So let me get this straight," Alex said as the four of them explored the tunnels of the asteroid. "This guy, House, he's… what, possessing them?"

"Sort of, yeah. Speaking through them, using their mouths. But as far as I can see… leaves them to their own devices most of the time. Anyway, that's not important. There are Time Lords here." He looks towards Alex and smiles. "We're not alone anymore…"

But you told me about your people, and you told me what you did," whispered Amy.

"Not to mention what happened last time we saw them?"

"Yes, but if they're like the Corsair, they're good ones and I can save them!"

"And then tell them you destroyed all the others?!"

"I can explain! Tell them why I had to…"

"You want to be forgiven."

The Doctor sighed with his hands on his hips. "Don't we all?" he asked eventually.

"What do you need from me?" Amy asked, nodding slowly.

"My screwdriver," the Doctor replied, patting his jacket pockets. "I left it in the TARDIS. It's in my jacket."

"You're wearing your jacket," Rory pointed out.

"My _other_ jacket."

"You have two of those..?"

"Okay, look, we will get it, but Doctor… don't get emotional. That's when you make mistakes."

"Yes boss," the Doctor smiled, saluting his understanding.

"We?" asked Rory.

"Yep," Amy replied, throwing the Doctor her phone and dragging Rory away.

"Two jackets, huh?" Alex asked once Amy and Rory were a suitable distance away. The Doctor nodded. "Got two screwdrivers too?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"I saw you use it on the Ood's translator."

The Doctor sighed and took it out of his inside pocket. He raised his eyebrows and then put it away again. "Alex, I need you to go with them."

"Why?"

"Because there are Time Lords here."

"I thought I was a Time Lord," he replied, deadpan.

"Not a full Time Lord. Some of us… of _them_, have a thing about… half-breeds."

"Charming."

"Not my word for it! So I'll just need to explain you to them before you meet them."

"Great," Alex said, rolling his eyes and turning away from the Doctor, heading after Amy and Rory.

' E

"He's basically sent us to our room!" Amy said angrily, pacing.

"It's Time Lord stuff," Alex muttered, leaning back in a chair.

"But you _are_ Time Lord!"

"Nope! I'm a half-breed," he replied with false cheer.

"A _what_?"

"'Though technically I'm a quarter-breed."

"He's not trusting any of us, and he's being emotional," Amy went on, continuing her pacing. "This is bad. This is very, very bad."

"Yeah, I think it probably is," Rory agreed, pointing to the doors. A green mist was seeping through them, a light shining through the windows.

"Sometimes I hate being right."

"Try and get the doors open," Alex told Rory, jumping out of his seat and looking over the console for inspiration.

"They won't budge!" Rory cried, heaving with all his might.

Alex shouted in frustration as he pulled levers. "No power! Except to these _bloody things_!" he said angrily, poking the emergency lights.

"What do we do?!" Amy asked as the phone began to wring.

"Answer that," Alex responded, trying and failing to turn on the TARDIS monitor.

"Doctor, something's wrong!" Amy called down the phone. "We can't! You locked the door, remember?" A pause. "You stupid well haven't!"

Rory joined them from the door as the mist grew too thick. Alex gave up on the console as a noise echoed through the room. The cloister bell. What little light was left in the room disappeared as a wind blew through the room. Emergency lighting sprung up again.

"Doctor, I don't like this!" Amy cried. "Doctor?" She huffed and threw the phone down as the light went down again, staying down.

The central column of the TARDIS began to shift, slowly. The engines fired up.

"We're moving…" Rory muttered.

"How can we be flying, we don't even have power!" Alex cried, pulling levers and pressing buttons at random again.

"Okay, listen," Rory said, taking Amy's hands as Alex got onto his back to look under the console. "Whatever happens, we're together, all three of us. We can work through this. And we're in the TARDIS, so we're safe!"

"You're half-right," a familiar voice agreed, resonating throughout the room. Amy and Rory stood rooted to the spot, shocked. Alex slowly got to his feet and stood next to them. "I mean, you are in the TARDIS. What a great adventure. I should have done this half a million years ago. So, Alex, Amy, Rory. Why shouldn't I just kill you now?" The three of them exchanged glances, a mix of fear, shock, surprise, dumbfoundedness. The House went on. "Oh! Corridors. I have corridors. So much to learn about my new home… but you haven't answered my question, children."

"Uhh… question?" Rory tried.

"You remember. Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you all now."

"Well…" began Amy, rapidly running out of steam. "Rory?"

"Alex?" Rory tried.

"_Rory_?" Alex replied.

He sighed. "Because… killing us quickly wouldn't be any fun. And you need fun, don't you? That's what Auntie and Uncle were for, wasn't it? Someone to make suffer. I had a PE teacher just like you. You, uhh, need to be entertained. And killing us quickly wouldn't be entertainment."

"So entertain me," House replied. "Run."

' E

Alex slammed the door shut behind him and leant against it, catching his breath. He and Rory had been separated from Amy and themselves separated not long after.

"An interesting choice," said House as Alex walked forward and sat down on his bed.

"Y'know, most people give others a little privacy when they go to their bedroom."

"I'm not most people. But then, I suppose Alex, neither are you. So why would you come here? You can't have honestly thought you'd be safe from me here. Is there a weapon you think you could use against me here? Because I can tell you now, that won't work."

"I guess that's what a bedroom is," Alex replied, still breathing deeply. "A personal sanctuary to hide from the evils of the world."

"There's nowhere on this ship you can hide from me."

"Not even the Zero Room?"

"I deleted the Zero Room to acquire extra thrust. It seemed a logical choice. But if you don't believe me, you can check for yourself. I believe you know the way."

Alex sighed and got up from his bed. He walked to the door and threw it open. He stopped in his tracks, holding onto the door frame for support.

"Oh, I should mention that I've moved your room. This door is now the exit of the TARDIS."

Alex gazed out at the sight before him. Other than the rift and the distant spot that was House's previous home, there was nothing. No stars, no light. A vast expanse of nothing. Alex began to breathe more heavily.

"Oh dear. The oxygen shell is weakening, and the doors are deadlocked open. You'd better get out."

"This is the only exit!" Alex cried.

"What about that one up there?" asked House. Alex silently cursed what he was about to see and raised his eyes skywards. Embedded in the ceiling was a trapdoor that he'd never noticed before. "You could quite comfortably escape through there."

"Yeah, thanks for that. Brilliant escape plan. If I was ten-foot tall or could fly!"

"Well why don't I help you out with that? I'll turn off the gravity for you."

Before Alex could protest, he and anything in his room that wasn't bolted down began to float into the air. "Never heard of the bends?" Alex asked queasily. House didn't respond. Alex tried to swim his way towards the trapdoor but was failing miserably.

"Anti-gravity _is_ a problem, isn't it?" House said, the amusement clear in his voice.

_Okay, stop moving_, Alex thought, knowing that this was something he'd have to think about. Squirming his way to the trapdoor wasn't going to work. He held still and began to float around again, almost serenely. He cast his mind back to his school days, searching for something in science lessons that could help. He landed on a physics lesson. _Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,_ he thought. He grabbed a shoe that happened to be floating past him. Slowly swivelling round so that his back was to the trapdoor, he threw the shoe as hard as he could. Though it didn't travel far, Alex was propelled backwards, right at the trapdoor.

"Impressive. Very impressive," House said as Alex threw a coat hanger and came within reach of the trapdoor. He pulled himself through it and closed it. The gravity instantly returned to normal and Alex collapsed to the floor, exhausted.

' E

Alex turned yet another corner. The TARDIS was an unusual place to get lost in. You could feel hopelessly lost one minute, then turn a corner and know exactly where you were. He sincerely hoped that was the case.

"I didn't think you'd bother to come here," House said, sounding genuinely surprised. Alex backtracked a few steps and realised he had just passed the Zero Room.

"I helped rebuild it. I'd have been annoyed if you'd actually deleted it."

"An interesting structure. Obsolete of course, now that the ship is mine. But interesting."

Alex pushed the doors to the room open and stepped inside, wondering if House would have any influence. "House?" he tried, calling out.

"This room is cut off from all electrical and radiological influences of the outside universe. It shields itself from the effects of magnetism. You could well assume that I would have no influence in here."

"But..?" Alex asked, sensing its arrival.

"I now have potential control over all time and space. Of course you would be wrong."

The doors to the Zero Room closed, cutting off all light to the room. Alex stood in pitch darkness.

"House!" Alex cried. "Why just trap me in a room? HOUSE!"

"Alex?" asked a voice. A small voice. A timid voice. A young voice. But most of all, a familiar voice. A match was struck in the corner of the room, which then lit a candle. Alex followed the light with a quickly sinking heart until he reached the light.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, kneeling down so that his eye-line was level with his sister's.

"I woke up here," Karen whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"With a candle and matches?" Alex asked, glancing at her hands. She nodded. "Torch wouldn't work in here. Very good, very clever,"

"Who are you talking to?"

Alex shook his head in anger and disbelief. "No-one."

"You never tell me anything," Karen said, getting to her feet.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ever since you left with _him_, you never tell me anything. It's all his fault! I hate him! You always keep secrets from me now… You never even visit!"

"_That's_ what you're worried about right now? Not that you've been kidnapped by a bloody _voice_, presumably through transmit, and locked in a dark room, but the fact that I don't visit home often enough?"

"He said you'd be like that."

"Who did?"

"The House."

"You've met House." She nodded. "No you haven't."

"Why would you say that?"

"Three reasons. One, my sister wouldn't be able to meet anyone called House without bursting out laughing and calling him Hugh Laurie. Two, my sister is so infatuated by the Doctor that even keeping me away from her wouldn't make her hate him. And three, this is the Zero Room. Cut off from the rest of the universe, and so, impossible to transmit into. Bottom line: you haven't met House, because you _are_ House. My sister is a million miles and a million years away."

"He said you'd say something like that."

"Still gonna keep up the pretence though, eh. Well alright, a good actress doesn't break character, even if she is… what, a hallucination? My imagination? Go on then. What did he say?"

"He said that you wouldn't be yourself. You'd be possessed. I'd have to release you."

"And how are you planning on doing that?"

Karen pulled a short penknife from her pocket. "A candle wasn't the only thing House left me." With a face contorted into fury, Karen charged at Alex, brandishing the knife. Alex calmly stepped aside and seized the apparition's hand, holding the knife far away from him.

"You might be a hallucination, but you're a hallucination of my sister," Alex said, plucking the knife from her hands. "And if there's anything you're bad at, it's hurting people. Whether you mean to or not."

"Impressive," said House, his voice once more reverberating around the room. "Not at all fazed by your own sister, attacking you with a knife. He _has_ trained you well."

Alex realised that his kicking sister and the small knife had disappeared. He relaxed himself. "You _never_ bring her into this, House. Unwritten rule. Line in the sand. You keep her out of everything you do."

"I was under the impression that I was in charge. But know that I am not an unmerciful god. I have allowed you a reunion."

Before Alex had a chance to respond, the door to the Zero Room burst open.

"Rory!" Alex cried.

"I heard a scream," he explained breathlessly. "It wasn't you?"

Alex shook his head. "Didn't hear anything. Well, I wouldn't, not in here."

"Sounded more like Amy anyway. C'mon,"

The two of them left the Zero Room, running after the sound of another high-pitched scream.

' E

"This is where she told me to come," Rory said as the three of them came to a locked door. "She said she'd send me the pass key-ahh!" His hands sprung to his temples as he received another message. "Crimson. Eleven. Delight. Petrichor." The pain seemed to disappear as Rory stood up straight again. "What, do I say it? Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor," he said, leaning into the door.

"House knows we're here, why isn't he messing with us anymore?" Alex asked, muttering to himself. He jogged forward to take a look either way down the corridor. "Oh! Hello!" Nephew was walking directly towards them. Alex backed up as the Ood turned the corner. "Ood!"

"Distract it then, hold it back!" Amy said, deep in thought.

"Yeah, I'll just hold back the spaghetti-faced alien with the electric death-ball, no problem." He looked back at Amy and Rory. Amy had her head lowered, her eyes closed. Rory's eyes were locked on Nephew in fear. "What _are_ you doing?"

"Quiet!"

Alex sighed and turned back to the Ood. "Okay, uhh… DoctorDonna friends. DoctorDonna friends."

"What the hell is that?" asked Rory.

"I don't know, I was told it worked once."

"Well it isn't working now!"

"Ood. I would like a drink. Please, get me one from kitchen six." He turned to Rory, who was giving him a look. "They're a slave race, near enough, shut up."

"Crimson, eleven…" Alex could now hear Amy's mutterings as he drew closer, constantly backing away from Nephew.

"AlexAmyRory friends. Y'know, the OodBrain would be ashamed of you. AlexAmyRory friends, absolutely ashamed. You weren't released from slavery for this!"

"We're in!" Amy cried following the sound of a pneumatic door opening. Alex hurriedly backed up into the dark room as the door closed again, cutting off Nephew's approach.

"What is this place?" Amy asked. "Another control room?"

Alex realised he recognised the metal-grating slope he was standing on. He turned around and a highly familiar sight greeted him as Amy turned on the lights. "That's exactly what it is," he grinned, rushing up the ramp and helping Rory turn off the shields. "This is the control room as it was when I first met the TARDIS," he explained as he pulled levers and pressed buttons. "Okay, door locked… aaaaaand… shields down."

"I didn't even tell you how to do it," Rory said, impressed.

"Because I already knew how, my friend," Alex smiled.

"How did you find this place? It isn't on my internal schematics. I had hoped you three could join Nephew as my servants." As on cue, the door opened, letting Nephew into the room. "But you three are nothing but trouble."

"Nice door-locking," Amy muttered to Alex as they backed away from Nephew.

"The Doctor taught me," Alex explained, sighing.

"I grow tired of your petty human disputes. Nephew. Kill them."

"Did you say 'electric death-ball'?" Rory asked nervously as Nephew advanced.

"Pretty much covers it," Alex nodded, wracking his brain for a method of defence. Clearly, going by the translator ball, this Ood was pre-release and therefore beyond reasoning. "If we had rubber gloves-"

"Ahh!" Rory cried, receiving another message. "Where are you coming through?" The message ended, presumably badly. "Oh great! Thanks!"

"What did she say?"

"Hold on," Rory replied. "We need to get out of the way?"

"Of what?" Alex asked as the three of them hid behind a nearby coral pillar.

"I don't know!" Rory cried as the sounds of the engines of a TARDIS filled the room, along with a blindingly bright light and a small explosion.

They peered around the pillar to see the Doctor and Idris, the mad lady, lying on the ground of a poorly constructed TARDIS console. The light faded and the Doctor got to his feet. He staggered forward and pulled Amy into a hug, laughing.

"Doctor," said Idris, clearly in pain. "How do you walk around in these things?" she asked as the Doctor helped her up and into a comfortable sitting position.

"Hold on," he replied. "We're not quite there yet. Guys?" he said, turning to Alex, Amy and Rory. "This is… well… she's my TARDIS. Except she's a woman. She's a woman. And she's my TARDIS."

"_She's_ the _TARDIS_?" Amy screeched after a moment, voicing the disbelief in Alex's head.

"And she's a woman," the Doctor grinned. "She's a woman, and she's the TARDIS."

"Did you wish _really_ hard?"

"Shut up, not like that!"

"Actually, makes sense when you think about it," Alex said, remembering their first meeting with Idris.

"How does it make sense?!" Amy cried.

"You have to _really_ think about it."

The Doctor helped Idris to her feet, who sighed heavily. "Hello," she said breathlessly with a hand on her abdomen. "I'm… Sexy."

"Still shut up," the Doctor groaned.

"Oh!" Idris said, sounding both pleased and surprised. "It's the half-breed."

"The environment has been breached," announced House. "Nephew, kill them all."

Nothing happened. No-one moved. "Where's Nephew?" Rory asked.

"He was standing right where you materialised," Amy continued.

"Ah. He must have been redistributed."

"Meaning what?"

"You're breathing him," the Doctor smiled.

"Ohh…"

"Another Ood I failed to save," the Doctor lamented, glancing at Idris.

"Doctor. I did not expect you," House said conversationally.

"Well, that's me all over, isn't it? Lovely, old, unexpected me."

' E

House's dying cries became whispers as the TARDIS matrix finally returned to its true home. The green hue was replaced with a golden one. The engines returned to normal. And the golden hue became a shining, glorious ball of energy in the centre of the room. At the centre of the light was Idris' floating, golden form.

"Doctor…" she asked, gazing up at the ceiling. "Are you there? So very dark in here…"

"I'm here," he whispered compassionately, stepping forward, eyes wet.

Hearing his voice, she looked down and met his eyes. "I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, and so sad. I've found it now."

"What word?"

"Alive," she smiled, tearfully. "I'm alive."

"Alive isn't sad,"

"It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here. But this is when we talked. And now, even that has come to an end… there's something I didn't get to say to you."

"Goodbye," the Doctor whispered, tears now rolling down his cheeks.

"No. I just wanted to say… hello." Idris was smiling sadly again, tears now streaming down her golden cheeks too. "Hello Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."

"Please…" the Doctor whimpered, in a rare showing of emotion. "I don't want you to… please…"

Despite his pleas, Idris' body convulsed in the air. She seemed to take a deep breath as the light surrounding her brightened, reaching a peak. The sounds of the TARDIS engines thrummed as her body faded out of being. "I love you…"


End file.
